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Friday 02 October 2020
More and more regions bordering Germany are being declared a corona risk zone. Now it is also affecting four Dutch provinces. The inhabitants of two Austrian enclaves can breathe a sigh of relief. The German Foreign Ministry makes an exception for them, also thanks to a request.
The federal government has declared all of Scotland, northern England, and almost all of the Netherlands to be corona risk areas and is now warning against tourist travel there. The risk list of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the travel advice of the Federal Foreign Office have been updated accordingly.
In the Netherlands, four regions were added on the borders with North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony: Groningen, Drenthe, Gelderland and Overijssel. Limburg is the only region on the border with Germany that has not yet been affected. Furthermore, Zeeland on the North Sea coast is excluded. So far, only three of the twelve Dutch provinces have been classified as risk areas.
Britain, Wales and Northern Ireland were the first regions to be included on RKI’s risk list on Wednesday. Scotland and the three northern regions of England – North West, North East, and Yorkshire and the Humber – have now been added. The risk area designation and associated travel advisories do not mean a travel ban, but should have the greatest possible deterrent effect on tourists.
The good news for vacationers: you can cancel a trip that has already been booked if the destination is declared a risk zone. The bad: Returnees from risk areas must be screened and quarantined until the result is there.
All clear for two communities
But it was also clear: for two areas in Austria, the classification as risk areas was revoked after protests from residents: for the Kleinwalsertal in Vorarlberg and the Jungholz community in Tyrol. The two enclaves, which can only be accessed from Bavaria, have not reported a single new corona infection in recent days. Therefore, an online petition with more than 10,500 supporters called for exception rules, with success.
The federal government’s decision is a first. So far, only entire federal states or provinces have been evaluated. No exception has been made for individual communities or valleys. The mayor of Mittelberg in Kleinwalsertal, Andi Haid, had said shortly before the decision was announced that the area, with its dependence on tourism, was threatened with “total economic loss” if the travel warning lasted too long.
The travel industry also calls for a more differentiated assessment for other regions. Classification as a risk zone occurs when a country or region exceeds the limit of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days. Currently, this applies fully to 123 countries and partially to 15. Travel to 50 other countries is not recommended, regardless of infection status. The reason: there are still entry restrictions, quarantine rules or a ban on leaving the EU. This group of states includes, for example, the popular winter vacation country Thailand, where there are hardly any corona infections, but foreign tourists have to stay out.
The bottom line is that there are only twelve countries left for which travel is neither advised nor discouraged: Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Poland, Sweden, Slovakia, Georgia, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, and the Vatican.
