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Travel: Germany to demand negative Covid-19 test from all air passengers

Anyone wanting to arrive in Germany by plane must from Monday onwards show a negative Covid test before boarding, the health ministry said, amid concerns over German tourists flocking to Mallorca over the Easter holidays.

Published: 25 March 2021 17:39 CET
Updated: 26 March 2021 10:53 CET
Travel: Germany to demand negative Covid-19 test from all air passengers
Travellers waiting at Hanover's airport on Thursday for a flight to Mallorca. Photo: DPA

The start date of the new measure was postponed from Sunday at midnight to Monday at midnight in order to give more time for airlines to prepare, said Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) in Berlin on Friday.

Airline crews are exempt from the new rules. The test must be less than 48 hours old and is to be paid for by the passenger.

The move comes as Germany is battling a sharp rise in coronavirus infections, fuelled by new virus variants, while the country’s Covid vaccination drive is still sluggish.

The Easter holidays next week have added to concerns, with thousands of Germans set to travel to the Spanish island of Mallorca after it was taken off Germany’s list of coronavirus “risk areas” earlier in March.

READ ALSO: ‘Germans are coming back’: Spaniards sceptical over return of tourists

Airlines are laying on hundreds of extra flights to cope with the surge in demand, piling pressure on the government to find ways to ensure that returning holidaymakers do not worsen the coronavirus’ spread in Germany.

Last summer, according to some reports, the virus was also brought to Germany by some travellers.

The government has already said it is considering a temporary ban on travel to popular holiday destinations abroad, but such a step would face high legal hurdles.

READ ALSO: Germany considers temporary ban on foreign travel

Until now, only passengers coming from Robert Koch Institute (RKI)-designated “high-risk” coronavirus areas are required to show a negative test upon arrival in Germany.

Through the introduction of compulsory testing, the German government is refraining from designating individual regions or countries as risk areas, but rather putting in place a general obligation to test all air travellers on their way to Germany for the first time.

“Testing prior to departure will reduce the likelihood that infected persons will travel and infect others during the flight or cause an additional entry of SARS-CoV-2 infections into Germany,” stated the draft regulation, which is to be limited until May 12th.

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COVID-19

Is the pandemic over in Germany?

As much of Germany lifts - or prepares to lift - the last remaining Covid-19 measures, intensive care units say Covid-19 admissions are no longer straining the system.

Published: 24 January 2023 09:00 CET
Is the pandemic over in Germany?

Despite a difficult winter of respiratory illnesses, intensive care units in Germany say Covid-19 admissions have almost halved. The number of cases having to be treated in the ICU has gone down to 800 from 1,500 at the beginning of this month.

“Corona is no longer a problem in intensive care units,” Gernot Marx, Vice President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, told the German Editorial Network. “A the moment, we don’t have to think every day about how to still ensure the care of patients, but how to actually run a service that can help.”

Marx said the drop has allowed them to catch up on many postponed surgeries.

The number of sick employees in hospitals is also falling, helping to relieve the pressure on personnel.

The easing pressure on hospitals correlates with the assessment of prominent virologist and head of the Virology department at Berlin’s Charite – Christian Drosten – who said in December that the pandemic was close to ending, with the winter wave being an endemic one.

German federal and state governments are now in the midst of lifting the last of the country’s pandemic-related restrictions. Free Covid-19 antigen tests for most people, with exceptions for medical personnel, recently ended.

READ ALSO: Free Covid-19 tests end in Germany

Six federal states – Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hessen, Thuringia, Lower Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein – have ended mandatory isolation periods for people who test positive for Covid-19.

Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt, and Schleswig-Holstein have ended the requirement to wear FFP2 masks on public transport, while Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia, and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania will follow suit on February 2nd.

At that time, the federal government will also drop its requirement for masks to be worn on long-distance trains. Labour Minister Hubertus Heil says that’s when he also intends to exempt workplaces – apart from medical locations – from a mask requirement.

READ ALSO: Germany to drop mask mandate in trains and buses from February 2nd

Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg will also end the requirement for patients to wear a mask in doctor’s offices. That’s a requirement that, so far, will stay in place everywhere else. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has also said that he thinks this requirement should remain. 

But some public health insurers and general practitioners are calling for a nationwide end to the obligation for wearing masks in doctor’s offices.

“The pandemic situation is over,” National Association of Statutory Health Physicians (KBV) Chair Andreas Gassen told the RND network. “High-risk patients aren’t treated in all practices. It should generally be left up to medical colleagues to decide whether they want to require masks in their practices.”

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