BERLIN — The German government on Monday urged residents to limit travel amid the coronavirus pandemic as airlines reported a surge in bookings to traditional beach vacation locations for Easter.
Budget airline Eurowings introduced at the weekend that it’s laying on hundreds of extra flights to Mallorca over the Easter period, and travel big TUI stated it’s opening hotels on the island early after Germany’s disease control agency removed the Spanish island from its list of ‘risk areas.’
Whereas the requirement for individuals to quarantine on return from Mallorca and other Spanish vacation hotspots has now been lifted, the German government made clear it frowns on any such journeys.
“The appeal is to avoid any not absolutely necessary travel,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert informed reporters in Berlin. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Adebahr, stated that “the absence of a travel warning is no invitation to travel.”
The German government bailed out Lufthansa, Eurowings’ parent firm, with $10 billion last yr. Asked about the discrepancy between the company’s flight offerings and the government’s advice, Seibert stated it was in Germany’s interest “to have a strong airline.”
Whereas the number of new weekly COVID-19 cases on the Balearic islands, of which Mallorca is a part, has fallen below the ‘threat area’ threshold of 50 per 100,000 inhabitants, a lot of Germany remains above that level and rising.
This has led to tensions between Chancellor Angela Merkel and state governors, some of whom have resisted imposing stricter lockdown measures again when newly confirmed cases rise above 100 per 100,000 inhabitants in a week.
The ‘emergency brake’ was agreed by federal and state officials two weeks ago as a part of a deal to begin reopening stores, faculties and museums, despite warnings from epidemiologists that infection charges could rise dramatically by Easter.
Seibert, the government spokesman, urged states to respect the agreement.
“The federal government recognizes the hazard of the current situation and so should everybody else,” he stated, noting the rising infection charges in the nation. “It is a bad development that we all need to react to together.”
Germany’s association of intensive care doctors called Monday for a return to stricter lockdown measures, whereas a teaching union urged all teachers to be given faster access to vaccines as students return to secondary schools this week.
Seibert acknowledged that the rise in infections among younger students was “an alarm signal” but declined to say whether the federal government would help moving teachers up the vaccine priority list, citing Germany’s system of devolved power.
“Schooling is a matter for the states,” he stated.
