Germany announced on Friday that it is imposing new travel restrictions in an effort to reduce the spread of more contagious coronavirus variants.
Details: All non-German residents traveling from countries considered “areas of varying concern”, including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Portugal, Ireland, Brazil, Lesotho and Eswatini, will be banned from entering the country, even if they negative results for coronavirus.
- The restrictions take effect over the weekend and will remain in force until at least February 17.
- There are some exemptions for health workers and some special cases.
The whole picture: Several mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 that are more contagious have been detected in several countries.
- Variant B.1.1.7, first detected in the UK, has spread rapidly throughout Europe.
- This forced the closure of a hospital in Berlin on January 23, Reuters reports.
- Germany has more than 2.2 million cases and 56,286 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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