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The federal states are taking new corona measures: in the future, vacationers from German risk areas will have to take negative tests; otherwise, travelers from Hamm or parts of Berlin will no longer be able to stay in hotels in many countries.
Several federal states want to require negative corona tests for vacationers from risky areas in the German interior in the future. According to a decision of the federal states telephone switching conference in the afternoon, they agreed that travelers from so-called corona hotspots within Germany must submit a negative corona test no longer than 48 hours upon arrival at hotels or other accommodations. Otherwise, a hosting ban applies. In exchange for this change, travelers are no longer subject to the mandatory two-week quarantine.
Deviate from the decision
According to the decision, most countries want to adhere to the regulation. However, Bremen, Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Thuringia submitted their own protocol statements.
For example, the representatives of Lower Saxony reserved the right to check whether the decision could be supported. Thuringia noted “that the assessment of the health authorities of the affected areas should be the basis and the criterion for measuring the travel destination areas.” Erfurt’s Health Ministry said in the evening that this de facto means that there is no entry ban into Thuringia.
Berlin stated that it wanted to be treated as a complete city and a unified community when assessing the infection rate. Also, unlike most other federal states, the capital does not plan to ban accommodation for people arriving from national corona risk areas. This was announced by a Senate spokeswoman. “Each federal state has to decide for itself how it can contain the pandemic. The Berlin Senate has adopted far-reaching measures here in recent weeks, often more far-reaching than other federal states,” the Senate spokeswoman said.
Apart from the declaration of the protocol, North Rhine-Westphalia announced that for the moment it would refrain from prohibiting accommodation for tourists in risk areas. So said the head of the NRW State Chancellery, Nathanael Liminski, in Düsseldorf.
Excluding family visits and trips
The regulation, which most countries have agreed to, therefore, only applies to travel for tourism purposes at commercial accommodation providers. Family visits are expressly excluded, as are trips.
In the resolution, the federal and state governments urged all citizens to avoid unnecessary travel to and from areas that exceeded the limit of 50 new infections per 100,000 residents in the past seven days.
Söder: Test obligation for all Bavarian vacationers from risk regions
Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder had previously announced that his state is also introducing mandatory testing for travelers to hotspots if they want to stay in hotels and restaurants. Therefore, the accommodation ban should apply to travelers from areas with more than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days. The exact areas have not yet been named by the Bavarian Ministry of Health. However, travelers generally have to pay for tests out of their own pocket if they do not show any signs of illness.
Lauterbach considers the rule to be “impractical”
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach said German internal testing obligations and accommodation bans are not very helpful. “Soon we will have so many affected regions that the rule will be difficult to implement, much less controllable.” Furthermore, offers in Germany should be maintained, precisely to prevent Germans from traveling to high-risk regions abroad.
Schleswig-Holstein, in particular, has recently come under fire for quarantine requirements for travelers from some Berlin municipalities and districts with a high number of infections.
Bund warns of diffuse distribution
In light of the growing number of new corona infections, the federal government had previously warned of an unclear spread of the corona virus. “We have skyrocketing numbers, especially in some of the major German cities, including the capital,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert in Berlin. Cases should no longer be assigned to “a single outbreak”. This raises concerns “that there may be a further diffuse spread of the virus.”
Health authorities must continue to be able to trace chains of infection and interrupt them quickly. “And with increasing numbers, it is easy to fear that health authorities will push themselves to the limit or beyond their capabilities,” Seibert said. “We can only contain the pandemic if we recognize and break the chains of infection.”
