The German authorities have tightened up entry restrictions for travellers from five more countries, two of which European Union Members, after the Robert Koch Institute added all five to the list of high-risk areas.
In the update of high-risk countries and regions, the RKI, which is a government institute responsible for disease prevention and control, has added the following five countries to the list:
- Bulgaria
- Cameroon
- Croatia
- The Republic of the Congo
- Singapore
The decision, which was announced on Friday, October 22, will become effective on the following Sunday. This means that travellers from these countries are now subject to more entry restrictions than before, including the obligation to register before their trip to Germany at einreiseanmeldung.de.
At the same time, these travellers will have to self-isolate for a period of ten days upon arrival in Germany. If the traveller can provide proof of vaccination with one of the vaccines accepted by the German authorities, or recovery from COVID-19 in the last six months, then the isolation can be ended prematurely.
As per travellers who aren’t vaccinated (or their vaccination is not valid in Germany) and those who have been infected with COVID-19 in the last months, they can still end quarantine prematurely by testing for COVID-19, though not immediately.
“The quarantine period may be ended on the basis of a negative test carried out no earlier than five days after entry,” explains the German Foreign Office.
Data published by the World Health Organization show that the newly reported cases in the last seven days per 100,000 population per Croatia, Singapore, and Bulgaria was higher than 300 (327.27, 396.42, and 344.5 respectively), while for Germany the rate stands at 90.26.
While for Cameroon (7.11) and Congo (20.89), the rate is low, according to the data made available to WHO, both countries have very low vaccination rates, with both countries having a vaccination rate of below one per cent.
Updating the list, the RKI has also removed four countries from it – Honduras, Iraq, Kenya, and Kosovo – which means that starting from Sunday, October 24, travellers from these countries can enter the territory of Germany under facilitated entry restrictions.
In last week’s update of October 15, Algeria, Fiji, Morocco, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia were also removed from Germany’s list of high-risk areas due to the drop in the number of COVID-19 cases in their territory recently. Prior to that, the RKI had added Estonia, Latvia, Brunei Darussalam, Ukraine, and Yemen to this list.
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