Family vacations are getting easier
The federal government announces entry easing before Easter
02/20/2022, 5:52 p.m
After the peak of the omicron wave has passed, the regulations on entry are to be relaxed. According to the Ministry of Health, this will happen before the Easter holidays. The quarantine obligation for children after returning from high-risk areas should be abolished.
The federal government wants to relax the corona entry regulations before the Easter holidays in order to make family vacations easier. “Children had to cope with a lot in this pandemic,” said Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “That’s why we are relaxing entry regulations at the time when the current omicron wave has passed its zenith.” This makes traveling easier for families. “You should still be careful on vacation,” emphasized the SPD politician.
According to the draft of the new travel regulation, children up to the age of twelve should be exempted from the quarantine obligation when returning from high-risk areas. In addition, countries should only be designated as high-risk areas if a corona mutant is rampant there that is more dangerous than the omicron variant, such as the delta variant. This means that Omicron countries are no longer required to register and quarantine when returning to Germany.
If unvaccinated children return from areas that are still considered high-risk areas, they can in future be tested freely. So far, a quarantine obligation has applied to them. The obligation for all non-vaccinated persons to present a negative test upon entry remains, even if they return from non-risk areas (3G).
List of high-risk areas is getting shorter
According to the information, Lauterbach’s draft amendment should go through the cabinet on Wednesday. On March 4th – well before the Easter travel season – the easing should come into force, as the ministry told the newspaper.
As of today, Sunday, 20 countries are no longer considered high-risk corona areas, including Spain, Great Britain and the USA. The French overseas departments of French Guiana, Mayotte, St. Pierre, Miquelon were also removed from the list; Ireland, Andorra, Afghanistan, Algeria, Fiji, India, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Laos, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Uzbekistan and United Arab Emirates.