Sunday 01 August 2021
“Travelers are well prepared”
The Federal Police take stock of those entering the country
As of today, all people who return to Germany from abroad have to present a negative corona test. The Federal Police checks this on a random basis – and is satisfied. “It’s running smoothly,” they say, there have been no problems so far.
The federal police have increasingly checked the now applicable corona test obligation for travelers returning from abroad. This is to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further towards the end of the summer holidays. All people from the age of twelve must be able to prove upon entry that they have either tested negative, vaccinated against corona or have recovered. Such a requirement already existed for all flight passengers. Now it applies to all means of transport, including those arriving by car or train.
“There are random checks. We try with our forces to check as many travelers as possible,” said the spokesman for the Federal Police in Pirna, Holger Uhlitzsch, with a view to the Saxon borders to Poland and the Czech Republic. The focus of the controls is on the motorways and federal highways as well as on the Prague-Berlin train route. But nobody is sent back at the borders. There would also be no direct fines. Rather, in the event of violations, reports of an administrative offense are forwarded to the responsible authorities, said the spokesman for the federal police.
In Rhineland-Palatinate and in Saarland there are controls within a radius of up to 30 kilometers on the German side, as a spokesman for the federal police in Koblenz said. Also in Bavaria Veil investigators at the borders with Austria and the Czech Republic check whether people are complying with the new entry rules. At the German-Austrian border in Kiefersfelden, the controls started without any problems, said a spokeswoman for the federal police: “The travelers are well prepared.” There were also no problems in Selb in northern Bavaria on the border with the Czech Republic. “It’s going well,” said a spokesman for the federal police.
“Sensitive” fines are threatened
Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann appealed to vacationers to abide by the new rules. “We have to do everything possible to keep the entry of additional infections as low as possible.” Like Herrmann, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer warned in the “Bild am Sonntag” that violations could result in “sensitive” fines.
The controls in the north at the land borders of Poland are also problem-free Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and from Denmark to Schleswig-Holstein started. By the early afternoon, random checks had not registered any violations, as a spokeswoman for the Federal Police Directorate in Bad Bramstedt said. There are also spot checks in the ports. Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will be the first to start the new school year on Monday.
If you stay in areas with new, worrying virus variants, proof of a test is required. Proof of recovery or vaccination is not sufficient in this case. In addition, since Sunday there have been only two instead of three categories for worldwide areas with higher infection risks: high-risk areas and areas in which new, worrying virus variants are circulating. The only virus variant areas on the Robert Koch Institute’s list are currently Brazil and Uruguay.
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