On December 25th, 2021, the German authorities have announced that Portugal, Spain, and the USA would now be considered as high-risk areas for the purpose of travel.
The information was originally published by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which is a federal government agency in charge of disease control and prevention currently responding to the Ministry of Health of Germany.
The decision was taken upon a new assessment of the sanitary situation of each country. Reputable sources from Spain, Portugal, and the United States of America indicated a rapid rise in the COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates. This might be related to the spread of the Omicron variant in these countries.
Monaco, Cyprus, and Finland were also added to the list of high-risk areas.
This means that from Christmas day until further notice, people coming to Germany from the U.S., Portugal, Spain, Monaco, Finland, or Cyprus will have to self-isolate for 10 days upon arrival in the country if they’ve not been vaccinated or if they haven’t had the disease in the recent past.
Unlike people coming from areas of variants of concern (the UK, its overseas territories, and certain countries of southern Africa), travelers from high-risk areas have the possibility of shortening the travel quarantine period if they submit a COVID-19 diagnostic test with a negative result no earlier than the 5th day.
These travel restrictions also apply to the Azores and Madeira, which are autonomous regions of Portugal, and to the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, which belong to Spain.
On the contrary, travel restrictions have been eased for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Serbia, Malaysia, and Belize, because after the new Robert Koch Institute’s evaluation, these countries do not meet the criteria to stay in the list of high-risk countries.
These changes on the list of high-risk areas will last until Monday 3 January 2022. The Robert Koch Institute has scheduled a revision for the decision on that day. The research institute will re-evaluate the statistics and the sanitary risk of each country and adapt the list of risk areas accordingly.
In the meanwhile, Germany’s own sanitary situation is improving, according to official sources. On December 24th, it was announced that the national seven-day incidence of COVID-19 has been descending in the last three weeks.
Even so, the German government has imposed new contact restrictions coming into effect on Tuesday 28 December 2021. Although Health Minister Karl Lauterbach ruled out a strict lockdown, from that day on, clubs and discos will be closed, sports stadiums will no longer allow the entrance of spectators, and private gatherings will be limited to 10 people —provided that they’re all vaccinated or have recently recovered from a COVID-19 infection.
This comes right after the German government declared it was unable to achieve a quota of 80 per cent for first-time vaccinations by January 7th, 2022, and postponed the goal to the end of January 2022.
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