New variant of the coronavirus: London passengers stopped at German airports

AWe are concerned about a new and more contagious variant of the corona virus, the federal government, like many other European countries, has imposed a ban on flights from Britain to Germany. The flight ban has been in effect from midnight. Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn said the mutated variant had not yet been detected in Germany. But he takes the reports from Britain very seriously. “We are in an intensive exchange at all levels, including with our European colleagues,” said the CDU politician on the ARD program “Report from Berlin.”

For London air passengers, this had drastic consequences at several German airports on Sunday night:

The Hannover region stopped the entry of 63 passengers on a flight from London. A regional spokeswoman said late Sunday that until the corona test result is available, passengers would have to remain on the airport grounds. He expects the results to be available on Monday, but that is not certain yet. Until then, the affected passengers would have to be accommodated at the airport.

According to information from the Hannover airport, camp beds were set up in Terminal D and passengers are also fed there. A spokesman for the federal police said a woman wanted to fly back to London, otherwise this has yet to be clarified. Everyone else would have to undergo the so-called PCR test. The “great common sense” prevails, the travelers showed “enough understanding for the measures”, emphasized the spokesman. However, it will take some time before the test results are available.

Compared to WELT NACHRICHTENSENDER, some passengers who were stuck in Hannover described the situation significantly differently. “The police locked us up here. The children scream, the people are desperate ”, describes a passenger the tense situation.

As of late Sunday night, the health department was still busy with testing. “Our goal is to prevent the new type of virus from moving unnoticed to Lower Saxony,” said Andreas Kranz, head of the public health department for the Hannover region.

Germany largely stops flights from Britain, landings from the country are banned from midnight, according to an order from the Federal Ministry of Transport. Consequently, pure cargo flights are excluded. According to British authorities, the virus mutation is up to 70 per cent more contagious than the previously known form and is spreading rapidly, especially in London and south-east England. To contain the virus, there is a curfew lockdown in London and much of the south-east of England, including during the Christmas period. More than 16 million people are affected. Other European countries are also arming themselves with flight bans and border closures against the virus variant.

In case the test result is negative, the passengers can go to their destination and have to go to a ten-day quarantine there, as announced by the Hannover region. After five days and another negative test result, the quarantine could end prematurely. If the test result is positive and it is certain that it is the known form of the virus, the usual quarantine requirement will apply.

However, if there is uncertainty whether a positive test result is a mutated form of the virus, the patient will be separated in a special quarantine hotel, Kranz announced. The health department worked together with the Red Cross, the technical assistance organization and the federal police at the airport.

Corona tests for British passengers at Stuttgart Airport

Security precautions have also been increased at Stuttgart airport. Travelers from a London plane that arrived Sunday night were taken in small groups to the airport’s corona test center and tested there, a spokesperson confirmed. Then, if the result was negative, they were allowed to collect their luggage and drive home, but they would have to quarantine there. It is not known how many passengers there were.

Upon request, the Federal Police generally announced that those arriving in Germany on Sunday would be offered a corona test and that they would be informed of the known quarantine regulations of the federal states.

“We know the resulting inconvenience for travelers, especially now in Christmas traffic,” he said. “All partners are working hard to ensure a safe entrance, but at the same time not to overstress the passengers.”

Berlin: tests for foreign passengers

The Berlin correspondent for the English weekly “The Economist”, Tom Nuttall, had apparently also landed on a plane from Great Britain in Berlin and reported something similar.

Nuttall wrote On twitterthat German passengers were allowed to enter the Berlin airport on Sunday night, but foreign passengers first had to wait at the airport and wait for a corona test.

The police had told the foreign passengers that they were being tested: Anyone who tested negative would not be returned. Passengers with a residential address in Berlin, including Nuttall, were allowed to leave the airport after some delay.

NRW: mandatory testing and retroactive quarantine for travelers

North Rhine-Westphalia re-enacted the quarantine regulations for Great Britain and South Africa. The quarantine obligation for travelers from the two countries even applies retrospectively from December 11, as can be seen in the new travel protection ordinance, which was published on Sunday evening and therefore entered into validity. Consequently, all travelers from Great Britain and South Africa are also required to take a corona test, which they must repeat after five days.

As NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) said in a broadcast on “BILD.de” in the evening, everyone arriving from Great Britain was offered a test at the respective airport on Sunday for the night. No machine from South Africa landed in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) said regarding the regulation on Sunday evening on WDR television’s “Current Time”: “You know, it has been repealed for all states by the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine- Westphalia. We will put it back into effect from midnight, especially for South Africa and Great Britain. ” In fact, the regulation was published a little later and therefore entered into force, before midnight. It is initially valid until January 17.

Passengers who arrived at Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund airports with machines from Manchester and London on Sunday were informed of the obligation to quarantine, according to Laschet.

“The Federal Police already urged the 144 people on this plane to get tested on the flight from Manchester, which landed in Cologne after 5 pm – and a quarantine order has been issued for these passengers individually,” Laschet said. . The same is the case at Düsseldorf Airport and Dortmund Airport. “And as of midnight, the flight ban will also apply to NRW.”

The head of government continues: “What naturally enters the country are trucks that bring goods or people who arrive by car. The quarantine regulations also apply here from midnight. “

The Higher Administrative Court of Münster had annulled the quarantine obligation for foreigners returning from risk areas regulated in the regulation of entry to the Crown of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the court, the country had not taken into account that travelers are exposed to a higher risk of infection when they return from countries with fewer infections than in their place of residence after returning home.

The regulation stipulated that returnees from foreign risk areas must quarantine their homes after entering North Rhine-Westphalia and not receive visits from other homes for ten days. Under the new regulation, which provides for a mandatory test after five days, the quarantine ends if the result is negative.

Laschet had called for an entry ban for travelers from Britain on Sunday. The Union politician wrote on Twitter that Belgium and the Netherlands had already stopped air and rail traffic. “To avoid alternative travel via Ddorf, Cologne or F / M, we need a fast-track, preferably European, entry ban,” says Laschet. The Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus mutation discovered in south-east England is said to be significantly more contagious.