Germany will make coronavirus mandatory for travellers returning from high-risk areas, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Monday amid growing fear of a build-up in the number of cases attributed to summer holidays and local outbreaks.
“We want to prevent returning travelers from infecting others without being seen and therefore trigger new chains of infection. So I’ll order mandatory testing for travellers in at-risk spaces,” Spahn wrote on Twitter.
Regulations will take effect next week, the Ministry of Health tweeted, and will be free.
The debate over coronavirus tests intensified over the weekend after the 16 German states agreed on Friday to lose evidence for all returning travelers, they stopped before doing the mandatory tests.
After a meeting with state officials on Monday, chancellery chief of staff Helge Braun said there was a “great willingness to move closer to such mandatory tests”.
“The consultation of how this can be implemented will now have to be tested in detail and I think we will succeed in a solution quickly,” he said.
Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder had previously joined a growing refrain of voices demanding mandatory testing for returning tourists.
“We’re preparing everything so that if the federal government provides the go-ahead, we can put it into effect right away,” he said.
However, the move has also attracted criticism from those who believe too much reliance on tests could lead to complacency.
“The one-time tests don’t offer security,” Ute Teichert, head of a national doctors’ agreement, said in an interview with media organization Funke. “On the contrary: they can lead to a false sense of security.”
Bavarian agricultural epidemic
Nevertheless, politicians are planning to ramp up testing in a bid to isolate infections early.
In Bavaria, Soeder said the state of southern Germany will establish coronavirus sites at its two largest stations, as well as key highway problems.
In addition to the control centres existing at Bavarian airports, checks will now be presented at Munich and Nuremberg stations, as well as on 3 primary motorway routes near the Austrian border.
“We cannot absolutely save the crown, so the purpose must be to trip over it in time to prevent it from spreading,” Soeder said.
Soeder said Bavaria will also be testing all seasonal agricultural workers in the state, following a mass coronavirus outbreak at a large farm.
Some 500 workers have been sent into quarantine over the outbreak, as at least 174 seasonal farmhands tested positive for the virus on the farm in the municipality of Mamming, most of them from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine.
Workers wearing masks could be seen on Monday milling around on the steps of the containers used to house them at the isolated rural site.
Residents in the municipality of Mamming have been offered free coronavirus tests, with various improvised test centres set up in the area.
A woman who called Brigitte said she would come for the test, so she could carry her grandson without worrying about the spread of the virus.
“I’m too worried because the staff was staying separately,” he said. “But I have to be sure.”
To stop new farm outbreaks, Soeder said the state would increase fines for farms that break regulations to 25,000 euros ($29,400), five times the existing fine.
Germany has done better than many of its neighbors in suppressing the virus, reporting more than 200,000 cases and 9,118 deaths to date, according to the Robert Koch Institute for Disease Control.
But the country has also been affected by repeated coronavirus outbreaks in slaughterhouses, keeping the government on high alert.
Listen to the latest songs, on JioSaavn.com
“Of what has happened in the last few days, with more than 800 instances a day in some instances, we want to go back to a scenario where we are well below 500,” Braun said.
(With the exception of the title, this story has not been edited through NDTV and is published from a syndicated broadcast).
Follow the coronavirus pandemic in India and get the latest NEWS from around the world in ndtv.com/coronavirus
Look at life:
Follow Us:
………………………….. Advertising…………………………..