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Spain, Portugal and USA added to Germany’s ‘high risk’ list

Travellers entering Germany from Spain, Portugal or the United States of America will be subject to stricter travel rules from December 25th.

Published: 24 December 2021 15:20 CET

Barcelona

People queue for booster jabs in Barcelona, Spain, on December 15th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire | Paco Freire

In an announcement made on Thursday evening, Germany’s Robert Koch Institute revealed that the three countries – along with Finland, Cyprus and Monaco – would all be upgraded to the high risk category.

The changes mean that anyone arriving from these countries after Christmas will have to fill in a digital entry form and upload proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative test if they are over the age of six.

Unvaccinated people will also have to quarantine for ten days – or five if they can present a negative test on the fifth day of self-isolation.

Since the USA is a non-EU country, only vaccinated people will be allowed to travel from America to Germany while the country remains on the high-risk list.

Omicron has rapidly taken over as the dominant variant in United States, accounting for around 75 percent of confirmed cases as of Wednesday.

However – unlike in the case of the UK – the Robert Koch Institute has opted to place the country on the ‘high risk’ rather than ‘virus variant’ list.

READ ALSO: TRAVEL: Germany adds UK to ‘virus variant’ risk list

Meanwhile, in Spain, Covid infections have been rising rapidly in recent days.

According to the Spanish Ministry of Health, the 7-day incidence of Covid infections stood at 563 per 100,000 people on Thursday evening – almost 80 more than the previous day.

However, since almost 80 percent of the population is fully vaccinated and many people have already received a booster jab, the situation in the hospitals is currently much less dramatic than in Germany.

As of Thursday, around 1,515 were in intensive care in Spain, occupying around 16 percent of the available beds. The regional differences were large, however. While in Extremadura only a two percent of intensive care beds were occupied by Covid patients, in Catalonia it was 32 percent.

Within one day, 82 Covid-related deaths were registered by the authorities.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What are the rules for entering Germany this Christmas and New Year?

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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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