BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany warned its citizens on Friday not to make unnecessary trips to neighbouring France, Austria, Denmark and the Czech Republic because of rising COVID-19 infection rates.
The move also means people coming into Germany from those countries will have to provide a negative test not older than 48 hours at the border, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control said.
They will then have to go into a ten-day quarantine which can be shortened after a second negative test after five days, it added.
France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said cross-border workers living in eastern France and travelling into Germany every day would be required to take two COVID-19 tests per week.
Tens of thousands of French residents traverse the frontier each day for work.
Germany also plans to make it mandatory for everyone flying into its territory to show a negative test before boarding the plane, even if they are not travelling from countries designated as high risk.
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Christoph Steitz and Andrew Heavens)
