Saturday 3rd July 2021
GdP chief on Delta distribution
Seamless border controls “not feasible”
The delta variant is also on the advance in Germany, even if the number of new infections every day remains low. Usually mutations from abroad are entered. Checking holidaymakers upon entry confronts the police with insoluble logistical hurdles.
Despite the holiday season and the increasing spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, there will be no stationary border controls by the federal police for the time being, also for reasons of capacity. “At the moment there are no instructions for controls at the borders,” said the chairman of the police union (GdP) for the federal police, Andreas Roßkopf, the editorial network Germany.
“If it stays the way it is now, it is not to be expected.” Should the pandemic situation worsen in the course of the return traffic, “then we would have to carry out more checks at the national borders – but that would only be possible in a nutshell,” explained Roßkopf. In this context, he referred to the controls that had taken place at the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic because of the pandemic. “That in itself was a personal and logistical challenge,” he told the RND. “Introducing nationwide border controls because of the delta variant would therefore not even be feasible,” emphasized the GdP boss.
In any case, this measure would have to be instructed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, in consultation with the Federal Police and the federal states. The deputy chairman of the police union, Jörg Radek, also expressed concerns of principle. “Border controls intervene deeply in the free movement of people and in the movement of goods,” he told the RND. “You have to be very careful when you take such measures.” Radek advised instead to condense the veil search.
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Thursday that there would only be checks in Germany’s border areas as part of a veil manhunt. He pointed out that Germany’s immediate neighbors are no longer risk areas – and that there are no longer any requirements for travelers. According to Seehofer, there should still be extensive controls when entering the country by plane. The particularly contagious Delta variant is also on the rise in Germany.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the proportion of infections with the variant first detected in India in all new corona infections doubled again to 37 percent in the third week of June. The experts assume that Delta will become the dominant virus strain in Germany by this week at the latest.
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