Germany has implemented new border restrictions because it wants to prevent the spread of more contagious coronavirus variants in the country.
The German government will restrict the border crossings of the Czech Republic and the Tyrolean province of Austria, with only health workers, truck drivers and residents and citizens of Germany allowed to cross, according to The Associated Press.
Although the incidence of Germany’s coronavirus has been declining slowly over the past few weeks, the more contagious strains of South Africa and Britain have both been detected within its borders. Many more cases of the British variant have been detected in Tyrol, which has asked Austria to require a negative test to travel within the rest of the country.
‘[N]If we take the mutations seriously, it will have significant consequences, “said Markus Soeder, governor of Bavaria, which borders both countries.
According to the AP, infection rates are particularly high in districts along the Czech border. He also said that the failure of the Czech parliament to expand the country’s state of emergency further complicated matters.
“In addition, there are currently concerns with our Czech partners that it is unclear what will happen to their corona management,” Soeder said. ‘We are friends, we help; we like to take in Czech patients if required, but of course if there were no measures across the border at all, it would mean a significant danger. ”
German authorities reportedly turned away nearly 300 of 717 people who tried to cross the Bavarian-Czech border on Sunday morning, saying they did not fall into the approved categories. A smaller percentage, 247 people out of more than 1,000, were turned away at the German-Tyrolean border.
State Governors and German Chancellor Angela Merkel reached an agreement last Wednesday to maintain most nationwide lock-in measures until March 7, with the aim of reducing new weekly business to 35 per 100,000 people before shops and museums can reopen. open.