Germany lists Spain, Netherlands as high-risk virus countries

Germany’s public health institute on Friday said it was putting Spain and the Netherlands on a list of high-incidence countries for coronavirus, meaning new restrictions for unvaccinated travellers.

The move by the Robert Koch Institute, effective on Tuesday, comes as Europe’s top economy tries to slow new cases in the face of the rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta variant at the height of the summer tourism season.

It said in a statement that Georgia was now also immediately listed among the high-incidence countries, those with new infection rates of 200 or more per 100,000 people in the past seven days.

Anyone arriving from high-incidence countries is required to go into a 10-day quarantine, which can be cut to five days upon a negative test.

Fully vaccinated people or those who have recovered recently from the coronavirus are exempt from the quarantine.

Germany has seen a sharp rise in new cases in recent weeks driven by the Delta variant, although it is still faring better than most of its neighbours.

On Friday it reported 2,089 new cases and 34 deaths in the previous 24 hours, bringing its seven-day incidence rate to 13.2.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday she was concerned about Germany’s “exponential growth” in Covid-19 infections, urging Germans to get vaccinated.