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How to get tested for coronavirus at Germany’s airports

An increasing number of German airports are offering coronavirus tests for travel returnees, with negative results exempting them from a 14-day quarantine.

Published: 23 July 2020 11:19 CEST
Updated: 23 July 2020 16:42 CEST
How to get tested for coronavirus at Germany's airports
A sign for testing at the Frankfurt airport on June 29th. Photo: DPA

Travellers returning to Germany from a “risk area”, as classified on a continually updated list from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), need a negative coronavirus test. Otherwise they have to go into a domestic quarantine for 14 days. 

Several airports throughout the country either offer these tests, or have plans to:

  • There are currently tests available at airports in Frankfurt, Munich, and Cologne/Bonn.
  • Free tests are also planned at all airports in Bavaria
  • Berlin also intends to offer tests at its airports, but there are not yet plans in Hamburg and Düsseldorf

Here's what you need to know for each airport.

Berlin: Travel returnees from risk areas are expected to be tested for coronavirus at Berlin's airports from next week onwards.

This was announced by Mayor Michael Müller on Thursday: “We have been in talks with the airport company since last week and are currently coordinating where and when we will install the test stations for returnees from RKI risk countries in Tegel and Schönefeld,” said the SPD politician.

“Our goal is to be able to offer Covid-19 test stations there at the beginning of next week.”

Frankfurt airport: This airport paved the way in airport testing in Germany by opening the country's first walk-in testing centre in June – although an advanced registration is required.

 

READ ALSO: Walk-in coronavirus test centre opens at Frankfurt airport

The test is carried out via a throat swab, and must be paid for by the traveller: €59 for a result within six to eight hours or €139 for a result within three hours.

The test result is then displayed via mobile phone. For an extra charge of €9, returnees can receive an official valid proof of the test result which can be shown to authorities in various countries. 

The testing centre is centrally located in the passage between Terminal 1 and the mainline railway station. More information is available on the airport website.

Munich and Bavaria: Holidaymakers can also have themselves tested for the coronavirus at Munich Airport. MediCare, a subsidiary of Flughafen München GmbH, offers such tests for around €190. 

Anyone wishing to take a test must register by telephone (089/975-63399) via the airport's emergency ambulance.

The test results are available approximately four hours after the swabs have been taken. The test centre is located in the airport's medical centre (Terminal 1, Area E).

Bavaria is also planning on testing all holiday returnees at all airports in the southern state. The fees for this will be covered by the state or health insurance companies, but it is still unknown when the regulation will come into force.

A sign with hygienic measures at Munich's airport. Photo: DPA

READ ALSO: Bavaria plans free coronavirus tests to halt virus at border

Cologne/Bonn Airport also offers holiday returnees a test opportunity in a mobile laboratory for €90 (Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.). The result is usually available within 24 hours. However, until the results are available, people returning from risk areas must go into domestic quarantine.

The test station is currently located outside the terminal on the parking deck opposite the ICE train station. In the next few days, though, it will move to a permanent station within the arrival terminal.

Where is there currently a travel warning?

For more than 160 countries outside the EU, the Federal Foreign Office has issued an initial travel warning until August 31st. For most European countries, it was lifted on June 15th and replaced by individual travel and security warnings for specific countries.

READ ALSO: Who is allowed to travel to Germany from outside the EU?

On the basis of various information, the Foreign Office decides how it assesses a danger situation and whether it advises against entering a coronavirus risk area:

How is a risk area determined?

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) names three factors that can lead to the classification of a country as a risk area.

  • If there are more than 50 new coronavirus infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days
  • If there is insufficient testing capacity in a country or the measures to contain coronavirus are inadequate (e.g. hygiene regulations)
  • When no reliable information is available for a particular country

Classification as a risk area is not the same as a travel warning. The travel warning can also be lifted for individual countries before August. If a country is classified as a risk area, however, this is pretty unlikely.

Member comments

  1. I would guess that these tests are nasal swab tests… with results within 4 hours? That does not seem like a reliable test. While a positive result is probably accurate, a negative result may be meaningless: the person is just not making enough virus, the virus wasn’t in that part of the nose, etc.

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HEALTH

Could there be a new wave of Covid-19 in Germany this autumn?

It’s back again: amid sinking temperatures, the incidence of Covid-19 has been slowly rising in Germany. But is this enough to merit worrying about the virus?

Published: 20 September 2023 12:05 CEST
Updated: 20 September 2023 22:22 CEST
Could there be a new wave of Covid-19 in Germany this autumn?

More people donning face masks in supermarkets, friends cancelling plans last minute due to getting sick with Covid-19. We might have seen some of those familiar reminders recently that the coronavirus is still around, but could there really be a resurgence of the virus like we experienced during the pandemic years?

According to virologists, the answer seems to be ‘maybe’: since July, the number of people newly infected with Covid-19 has been slowly rising from a very low level.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), nine people per 100,000 inhabitants became newly infected in Germany last week. A year ago, there were only around 270 reported cases.

Various Corona variants are currently on the loose in the country. According to the RKI,  the EG.5 (also called Eris) and XBB.1.16 lines were each detected in the week ending September 3rd with a share of just under 23 percent. 

The highly mutated variant BA.2.86 (Pirola), which is currently under observation by the World Health Organisation (WHO), also arrived in the country this week, according to RKI. 

High number of unreported case

The RKI epidemiologists also warned about a high number of unreported cases since hardly any testing is done. They pointed out that almost half of all registered sewage treatment plants report an increasing viral load in wastewater tests.

The number of hospital admissions has also increased slightly, but are still a far cry from the occupation rate amid the pandemic. Last week it was two per 100,000 inhabitants. In the intensive care units, only 1.2 percent of all beds are occupied by Covid-19 patients.

Still, a good three-quarters (76.4 percent) of people in Germany have been vaccinated at least twice and thus have basic immunity, reported RKI. 

Since Monday, doctors’ offices have been vaccinating with the adapted vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer, available to anyone over 12 years old, with a vaccine for small children set to be released the following week and one for those between 5 and 11 to come out October 2nd.

But Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has so far only recommended that people over 60 and those with pre-existing conditions get vaccinated.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Who should get a Covid jab this autumn in Germany?

“The pandemic is over, the virus remains,” he said. “We cannot predict the course of coming waves of corona, but it is clear that older people and people with pre-existing conditions remain at higher risk of becoming severely ill from Covid-19”

The RKI also recommended that people with a cold voluntarily wear a mask. Anyone exhibiting cough, cold, sore throat or other symptoms of a respiratory illness should voluntarily stay at home for three to five days and take regular corona self-tests. 

However, further measures such as contact restrictions are not necessary, he said.

One of many diseases

As of this autumn, Covid-19 could be one of many respiratory diseases. As with influenza, there are no longer absolute infection figures for coronavirus.

Saarbrücken pharmacist Thorsten Lehr told German broadcaster ZDF that self-protection through vaccinations, wearing a mask and getting tested when symptoms appear are prerequisites for surviving the Covid autumn well. 

Only a new, more aggressive mutation could completely turn the game around, he added.

On April 7th of this year, Germany removed the last of its over two-year long coronavirus restrictions, including mask-wearing in some public places.

READ ALSO: German doctors recommend Covid-19 self-tests amid new variant

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