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Germany requires negative Covid test for travellers from the Netherlands after Easter

From Tuesday, travellers from the Netherlands will need to show a negative Covid test and quarantine on arrival in Germany, after Berlin declared the Netherlands an area of "particularly high risk'.

Published: 4 April 2021 18:37 CEST
Germany requires negative Covid test for travellers from the Netherlands after Easter
Ramon van Flymen / ANP / AFP

The whole of the Netherlands, including its constituent countries and the overseas territories of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is now deemed “at particularly high risk of infection due to a particularly high number of cases,” Germany’s public health body the Robert Koch Institute said.

This becomes effective from Tuesday, meaning that anyone who wants to enter Germany from the Netherlands after that time will need to show a negative Covid test that has been carried out 48 hours before entry at the earliest.

For commuters, a negative test is valid for 72 hours. 

Anyone entering Germany from the Netherlands will also need to register on this website before they arrive. Those who are travelling through the country or who are staying for less than 24 hours don’t need to do this.

Those arriving from the Netherlands will also need to comply with Germany’s quarantine requirements: this includes a compulsory ten-day quarantine with the option to take a Covid test after five days and end the quarantine period early if this test is negative.  

The Netherlands is the fourth country to border Germany – after Czech Republic, Poland and France – that Germany has qualified as an area of particularly high risk.

READ ALSO: UPDATE: Germany requires negative Covid test for travellers from France

According to the RKI, a country is designated as particularly high risk when it has more than 200 new infections per 100,000 residents within the last seven-day period.

The seven-day incidence rate in the Netherlands stands at just under 300 new infections per 100,000 residents, according to Statista.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the Netherlands registered 8,139 new infections on Saturday, 492 more than the previous day. 

The Netherlands recently extended its lockdown and evening curfew until April 20th.

The country has been in lockdown since mid-December, while the curfew was put in place at the end of January.

Despite these restrictions, case numbers are continuing to increase as can be seen in the below chart from Our World in Data, which compares daily new case numbers in Germany and the Netherlands per million people.

Germany’s existing travel and safety advisories can be seen here.

The RKI did not make any other changes to the countries it classifies as areas of risk, high-incidence or virus variant of concern.

 

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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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