Covid-19: Germany imposing quarantine on travellers from UK

Berlin - From Sunday, all travellers arriving from the UK will have to submit to a quarantine period of two weeks.

By AFP, Reuters

Published: Sat 22 May 2021, 6:48 AM

Last updated: Sat 22 May 2021, 6:57 AM

Germany will impose a quarantine on people arriving from Britain due to the spread there of the coronavirus variant first found in India, the Robert Koch health institute said on Friday.

From Sunday, all travellers arriving from the UK will have to submit to a quarantine period of two weeks, regardless of whether they can provide a negative test result for the virus.

Germany declares UK a virus variant region

Cases of a coronavirus variant of concern first found in India continued to climb in Britain.

"We want to play it safe," a German government source said. "In this important phase of the vaccination campaign, the entry of problematic mutations must be avoided as far as possible."

Health Minister Jens Spahn said earlier this month that a third wave coronavirus infections in Germany "appears to be broken", but government officials are being careful.

"If we want to keep pushing down infection rates, we need to prevent contagious viral variants from jeopardising this positive trend," a spokesman for the Health Ministry said.

"This step is hard for the UK, but it is necessary to prevent the rapid spread of the Indian variant in Germany," he said, adding that only when more people have been vaccinated is Germany armed against such a danger.