Effective Jan. 9, unvaccinated travelers and those who have not been infected with COVID-19 recently will be required to quarantine on arrival in Germany.
These visitors must present a negative COVID-19 test before departure and self-isolate for ten days. The quarantine can be terminated after five days if the traveler can produce a second negative test.
Also, “travelers who have visited a high-risk area or area of a variant of concern in the last ten days must register at www.einreiseanmeldung.de before arriving in Germany and carry proof of registration with them upon entry,” said the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The new “high-risk” travel warning includes Angola, Cape Verde, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Comoros, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda in Africa.
In Central and South American and the Caribbean, Argentina, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Grenada, Jamaica, Belize and Panama are the countries affected.
In Europe, Estonia, Luxembourg, France – including the French overseas departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, St. Martin and St. Barthélemy-, Iceland, The Netherlands – including the overseas parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands of Aruba and Curaçao–, and Sweden.
And Australia and Fiji in Oceania, and Israel, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East.
The list was released by the Robert Koch Institute, which is the German government research agency in charge of disease control and prevention. Restrictions will be valid from Jan. 7 until further notice.
On Friday, Germany’s newly appointed Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of the country’s 16 states agreed on a new set of rules and restrictions to fight the spike in COVID-19 cases.
Under the new tightened restrictions, only people who have received a booster dose can enter indoor venues such as bars, cafes, and restaurants.
Those who have only had two vaccines or who have recovered from the illness must additionally show a negative COVID-19 test, while the unvaccinated will remain barred from visiting these indoor venues.
“It’s a strict rule, but it’s a necessary one that will help us better control infections [in the future] than is currently the case,” Scholz said, defending the measure.