Border controls – including restrictions on public transport and mandatory test and quarantine requirements for travelers – are inevitable in an effort to prevent the importation of other more contagious coronavirus variants, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Friday.
“This means that there is a ban on transport “And without exception, tests must be taken before they enter Germany – and there is an obligation to be quarantined,” Spahn told reporters during a health press briefing.
Spahn further said – despite the new variants – overall infection rates in Germany have dropped.
” To protect the population from virus mutations – that’s why the federal government decided yesterday to do so declare the Czech Republic, Tyrol and Slovakia as coronavirus variants,said the minister.
Some contexts: On Thursday, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Germany was temporarily imposing border controls and restricting travel from the Czech Republic and the Austrian province of Tyrol, due to the increase in infections of the new, more contagious coronavirus variants. The restrictions take effect on Sunday.
Germany took over on Friday 9,860 new coronavirus infections – a decrease of 3,048 cases compared to the same day last week. The death toll from the coronavirus in Germany has risen to 556 in the past 24 hours – a drop of 299 compared to Friday last week.
The latest data from the country’s public health authority, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), suggests the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants could fall below 60 over the weekend, Spahn said.
From Friday, 5.7 million coronavirus vaccines have been distributed across Germany’s 16 federal states, with about 3.6 million vaccinations so far. 2 490 423 – according to RKI data, 3% of the German population received the first shot, while 1 178 725 received the second shot. Spahn said Germany would distribute 8 million coronavirus vaccines by the end of next week.
Germany currently administers coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.