Berlin – Germany will require all unvaccinated travellers arriving within the nation from Sunday to present a negative COVID-19 test result, stepping up health checks on returning holidaymakers amid concern over rising caseloads in holiday destinations.
Previously, only airline passengers were required to produce a negative test if they were not vaccinated and had not recovered from COVID-19 within the previous six months. Individuals entering by road, rail or sea weren’t required to do so.
The move, announced by the government on Friday, comes amid rising concern over travellers bringing again infections from their summer holidays as the Delta variant of the coronavirus spreads across tourist hot spots.
Kids under the age of 12 are exempt from the new testing requirement, the government stated.
As many as one in 5 new coronavirus infections detected in Germany last week were contracted abroad, with travellers from Spain and Turkey accounting for nearly 500 cases, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.
Germany got off to a gradual beginning but then picked up the pace of its vaccination programme. More than half the population has now received two shots, dramatically decreasing the severity and lethality of the disease.