Germany yesterday added a large number of countries to its
list of high-risk destinations, meaning travellers arriving in the country from them are
required to take a Covid test and potentially enter quarantine.
The whole of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Hungary,
Monaco, Slovenia and Italy – with the exception of Calabria – were added to the
list with effect from midnight on Sunday. Some individual regions in other
countries have also been added to the list.
Estonia’s Jogeva region is no longer considered a risk area
and Namibia and the Canary Islands were also recently removed from the list.
Many major European countries, including France, Spain and
the UK, have been on the high-risk list since mid-October.
The German classification as a risk area is based on a
two-step assessment. Initially, it is determined in which countries/regions
there were more than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the last
seven days. In a second step, qualitative criteria are used to determine
whether or not countries/regions that might nominally fall below this threshold
could nonetheless still present an increased risk of infection.
Travellers entering Germany who have spent time in a risk
area within 14 days prior to entry are subject to a mandatory Covid-19 test and
may also be subject to quarantine depending on the local state regulations.