Germany has effectively halted private travel to and from Ireland, the UK and South Africa to contain the spread of coronavirus mutations.
The new regulation, applicable also to Portugal and Brazil, outlaws travel “except absolute exceptions” and comes into effect from midnight on Friday.
“We have to get ahead of the situation; that means we have to make preventative decisions so the virus cannot spread further,” said German interior minister Horst Seehofer.
The new rules will not affect cargo transport, transit passengers at airports, German citizens or foreign nationals who live permanently in Germany.
Otherwise the new regulation will allow arrivals from the five banned countries only on health or “urgent humanitarian grounds”.
Germany will review the new regulations on February 17th, along with other restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19.
It is the second time in three weeks that Germany has restricted travel to Ireland with just a few hours’ notice.
Berlin officials said the decision was a response to a failure to agree binding restrictions at EU level. A government spokesman insisted Germany was not breaking rank but would continue to engage “intensively” with EU neighbours.
“The European negotiations are ongoing but there is a certain wriggle room for national measures,” said Steffen Seibert, spokesman for chancellor Angela Merkel.
This week she said allowing a slow spread of virus mutations in Germany – with cases now confirmed from Berlin to Bavaria – had left the country “sitting on a powder keg”.
German wanderlust
Dr Merkel was unusually blunt in her criticism of German wanderlust, reportedly telling party allies in a private briefing she wanted a “tougher border regime”.
Noting that 50,000 Germans flew daily to the Canary islands and Maldives over Christmas, she reportedly added: “We need to thin out air travel so that [people] cannot get anywhere.”
Ryanair flies six routes from Ireland to Germany, including Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne, but has already thinned out what were once daily flights to twice or three times a week.
Aer Lingus operated popular flights to Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich but a spokesman said on Friday evening the airline was no longer operating services to Germany.
Germany remains in lockdown until mid-February, with only essential services and shops open. This week infection numbers began a slow decline, pushing the incidence rate below 100 cases per 100,000 for the first time in three months.
On Friday, Germany announced 14,022 new cases within 24 hours, 4,000 fewer than a week ago, and 839 deaths within 24 hours.
After agreeing non-binding travel recommendations in Brussels, representatives from Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland indicated their countries would follow Germany’s lead and introduce their own measures.
A week ago the Dutch government announced a ban on travel from South Africa while, starting on Wednesday, Finland banned all non-essential travellers from entering the country – including from other EU member states.
Helsinki said it would consider only work that is significant for the functioning of society to be essential travel.
