Germany to Mandate Quarantines on Travelers From UK

Germany will impose quarantine on travellers from Britain from midnight on Monday and require a negative COVID-19 test for entry into the country, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said on Saturday.

Germany’s regional health ministers had urged the national government on Saturday to introduce tougher rules on people arriving from Britain, where the Omicron coronavirus variant has sparked a surge in infections.

At a meeting, the ministers called on Berlin to classify Britain as a virus-variant area, enforcing a two-week quarantine on all travellers including those who are vaccinated.

“The spread of Omicron in the UK is very evident. … We have to prevent the spread for as long as possible and slow it down as much as possible,” the ministers said in a statement.

Britain has reported record daily COVID-19 infections for the past three days, reaching over 90,000 on Friday.

Infections rose steeply in Germany through October and November, but have been slowly falling since December, with 50,968 reported on Friday.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Victoria Waldersee Editing by Mark Potter and Leslie Adler)

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