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In many European countries, the number of new corona cases is critically increasing. Therefore, the Federal Foreign Office has issued more travel advisories. In addition to two capitals, northern France and the Netherlands are also affected.
Due to the high number of infections, the federal government now also warns against unnecessary “tourist” trips to the Austrian capital, Vienna, and the Hungarian capital, Budapest. In addition, new travel advisories have been issued for various regions of France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Romania, the Netherlands and Switzerland, as announced by the Federal Foreign Office on its website. The affected regions had previously been officially declared corona risk zones.
Northern France and Holland are also on the list
The central criterion for classification as a risk area is in which states or districts there were more than 50 new people infected per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days. In France, this now also includes the northern region of Hauts-de-France and the overseas territory of La Réunion. Warnings are given against travel to these areas, as well as against tourist travel to the Dutch provinces of North and South Holland.
For Switzerland, the existing travel advisory for the cantons of Geneva and Vaud has been extended to include the canton of Friborg. In the Czech Republic, the Central Bohemian region has been added to the capital, Prague. In addition, new travel advisories apply to the Croatian counties of Brod-Posavina and Virovitica-Podravina, as well as the Romanian counties of Caraș-Severin and Neamț. However, there is no longer any warning against traveling to the Romanian regions of Argeș and Dâmbovița. All travel information can be found on the website of the Federal Foreign Office.
Reservations can be canceled free of charge in the event of a travel warning.
A travel warning is not a travel ban, but is intended to have a deterrent effect. For German vacationers, returning from an area with a travel warning means a mandatory corona test and a mandatory quarantine until a negative result is available. For consumers, travel warnings also have a silver lining: They allow travelers to cancel reservations for free.
In this context, the new Berlin assessment deals a severe blow to tourism in many of the listed regions. Hotels and restaurants in Austria are already suffering. For example, the traditional hotel Sacher laid off 140 employees at its locations in Vienna and Salzburg on Tuesday. “A situation couldn’t be more dramatic,” Sacher’s boss Matthias Winkler said. Sales at Sacher will be just 25 percent from the prior year in 2020.
Austria three times more affected than Germany
According to Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober, celebrations with family or friends are responsible for the persistently high number of new corona infections throughout the Alpine republic. More recently, 768 new cases were registered in one day. The number of occupied hospital beds is also beginning to increase markedly, Anschober said.
With this development, Austria is well above the trend in Germany. Taking into account the number of residents, the number of infections in Austria is three times higher. 3,600 of the around 6,600 currently active cases in Austria are reported from Vienna. Therefore, Switzerland had already included the Austrian capital in the list of risk areas.
