Germany imposes travel ban on passengers from Ireland, Portugal over new variants

Germany has imposed a travel ban on passengers from Portugal and Ireland citing the new COVID-19 variants, which scientists say are highly contagious. Portugal and Ireland join the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil, citizens of which were already banned from entering Germany after detection of new variants in these countries. The ban is expected to be in effect until February 17 following which the German government will review the prohibition based on scientific evidence. 

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The German government has said that exceptions will be made for citizens and permanent residents of Germany. People who have connecting flights from Germany will also be allowed to enter the country but will have to stay in the transit zone until they board their next plane. On January 31, Germany also designated African countries Eswatini and Lesotho as areas with a particularly high risk of infection due to the widespread occurrence of certain SARS-CoV-2 virus variants. Only residents of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea have unrestricted entry into Germany. 

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Last week, the European Commission had called on EU member states to introduce travel restrictions for international passengers because of the new emerging COVID-19 strains. The Commission had also recommended imposing restrictions on non-essential travel within the bloc in order to block the virus from spreading, which is raging havoc in the region for the past several months as the infection and mortality rates have significantly gone up. 

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COVID-19 in Germany

Germany has recorded more than 2.2 million COVID-19 cases so far, of which 56,286 people have lost their lives. The country began inoculating its people last month after the European Union gave a go-ahead to member states to start vaccinations. Germany has vaccinated more than 2 million of its 80 million people to date, 2.8 vaccinations per 100, according to Our World in Data. 

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(Image Credit: AP)