Status: 07/27/2021 10:05 p.m.
In around a week, all returning travelers could be required to present a negative corona test. The federal government promised that, said CSU boss Söder in the daily topics. But the plans are met with opposition.
As early as the beginning of August, the corona requirements for travelers returning will likely be tightened significantly: Then everyone who comes to Germany from abroad will have to show a negative test.
“The federal government has now assured us that it will try everything by August 1st to introduce a uniform test requirement, not only for air travelers,” announced Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder in the daily topics on. According to the CSU boss, the new regulation will be quite simple: “Everyone needs a test.”
Markus Söder, Prime Minister of Bavaria, on possible stricter corona controls for travelers returning
Topics of the day 10:15 p.m., 7/27/2021
Avoid school closings with low case numbers
Such a uniform regulation should give the federal states more security, also with a view to the coming school year. “School must be guaranteed, and the fewer Corona cases we have, the fewer there are school closings through the back door,” emphasized Söder.
He had previously urged mandatory tests for all travelers returning. “The vacation dates didn’t just fall from the sky,” said the Bavarian state chief. Germany needs clear lines at an early stage for dealing with the pandemic for the autumn. “We mustn’t just stumble into autumn. It won’t be enough to hope that the Corona goblet will pass us before the federal election and that we won’t have to decide anything.”
Tests when traveling by plane, car or train
The obligation to test should then probably not only apply to air travelers. Anyone who travels by train, bus or car must also undergo a test. Söder wants to use veil searches for the controls of motorists – not only directly at the border, but also in the surrounding area.
The plans to extend the test obligation to all return travelers had already become known from the Ministry of Health. A spokeswoman for Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) said the federal government is advising on extended test obligations at the end of the summer vacation period. “The Federal Ministry of Health is for the fastest possible expansion of the test obligations upon entry.”
Legal security concerns
It has been known for a long time that Spahn wants to oblige all immigrants to submit evidence of recovery or vaccination or to have themselves tested. Like Söder now in the daily topics said, but there were concerns that a corresponding legal basis was lacking to implement new regulations so quickly. The new entry regulations come into effect on Wednesday. Among other things, it stipulates that, unlike in the past, those who have been proven to be vaccinated and recovered are exempt from quarantine if they enter from a virus variant area. Otherwise, with the new entry regulation, the previous test and quarantine rules will essentially be extended until September 10th.
Lambrecht considers duty to be disproportionate for everyone
However, there is resistance to compulsory testing for all returnees from abroad. The newspapers of the Funke media group quoted Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht, who described these considerations as disproportionate. But she also confirmed that the federal government is in “constructive talks” to find ways to “make travel even safer”.
So far, the obligation to test applies to air passengers and travelers from high-risk areas who have not been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus or who have not recovered from Covid-19 disease. Proof of a negative result must be made in the holiday country and presented before the start – or proof of a convalescent or fully vaccinated person.
More and more are infected abroad
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), returnees play an increasingly important role in the development of the infection process. According to the current weekly status report of the RKI the number of people infected abroad increased significantly in the weeks from June 21 to July 18.
Accordingly, a probable exposure abroad was reported in 2402 people – around ten percent of all reported cases. “This shows an increasing role of travel-related cases in the current infection rate,” says the RKI report. For the reporting week from May 31 to June 6, the RKI had specified the proportion of cases from abroad in all reported new infections as one percent.
Spain and the Netherlands are now high incidence areas
A total of 23,649 cases were reported in the current reporting week, 11,662 of them from Germany. In 9949 cases, no information is available on the likely country of infection. According to the RKI, Spain follows Germany with 821 cases of the countries of origin of the new infections.
The travel destination is classified as a high incidence area – including the holiday destinations popular with Germans such as Mallorca, the Canary Islands or the Costa Brava. The Netherlands is now also a high incidence area. Returning travelers must provide proof of a complete vaccination or of having survived corona disease in order to avoid a ten-day quarantine.
Otherwise, you will only be able to “test yourself” out of quarantine after five days. According to the tour operator TUI, there were initially hardly any indications that a large number of people wanted to break off their Mallorca vacation prematurely or cancel previously booked stays.