Germany announced on Friday that it is introducing new travel restrictions in an effort to curb the spread of more contagious coronavirus variants.
Details: All non-German residents traveling from countries considered to be an area of varying importance, including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Portugal, Ireland, Brazil, Lesotho and Eswatini, will be banned from entering the country, even even though they are negative for the coronavirus. .
- The restrictions take effect over the weekend and will run until at least February 17th.
- Some exemptions exist for health workers and some special cases.
The whole picture: Several mutated strains of SARS-CoV-2 that are more contagious have been detected in a number of countries.
- The B.1.1.7 variant, first detected in the UK, spread rapidly in Europe.
- The variant forced a Berlin hospital to close on January 23, Reuters reported.
- According to Johns Hopkins University data, Germany recorded more than 2.2 million cases and 56,286 deaths.
Go deeper: Coronavirus variants require a stricter response