Germany will impose Covid-19 tests on travellers returning from 'high risk' countries - including the US but not Britain - after UK's trace and test chief dismissed the idea

  • Germany will make coronavirus tests on travellers returning from 'hotspots' 
  • These include popular tourist destinations such as Turkey and America  
  • But Spain, France and Britain are not considered countries with a high-risk
  • Munich, Dortmund and Duesseldorf are among the airports carrying out checks
  • Angela Merkel's health minister is today discussing plans to enforce them
  • Britain has never ordered such tests and has played down talk of imposing them 

Germany will make coronavirus tests mandatory for travellers returning from high-risk areas, as fears rise that summer travel could spark a new surge in infections.

Among the countries included in the measures, announced today by Health Minister Jens Spahn, is the USA, which has so far reported 4.33million confirmed cases and 149,000 deaths from the virus. 

Popular German holiday destination Turkey is also on the list, but Spain, France and Britain are not considered high-risk. 

'We must prevent returning travellers from infecting others unnoticed and thus triggering new chains of infection. I will therefore order compulsory testing for travellers from risk areas,' Spahn wrote on Twitter. 

A passenger is tested by a doctor at a coronavirus screening station in Duesseldorf Airport's medical centre today, as Germany considers whether to make airport tests compulsory

A passenger is tested by a doctor at a coronavirus screening station in Duesseldorf Airport's medical centre today, as Germany considers whether to make airport tests compulsory 

Passengers wait to be tested at a coronavirus screening station in Duesseldorf today after the state of North Rhine-Westphalia ordered screening to take place at three airports

Passengers wait to be tested at a coronavirus screening station in Duesseldorf today after the state of North Rhine-Westphalia ordered screening to take place at three airports 

Earlier today, it was reported that Germany is carrying out coronavirus checks at airports and is considering making them compulsory to fend off a second wave of Covid-19. 

Munich, Dortmund and Duesseldorf are among the airports which are screening travellers when they return from overseas, and Angela Merkel's health minister is today discussing plans to enforce them nationwide.  

Britain has never imposed such checks and the Government's test and trace chief yesterday played down suggestions that UK tourists could be tested on their way home from Spain.  

Germany has seen what its own health officials call a 'very concerning' increase in cases in recent days, after being widely praised for its handling of the crisis so far. 

In Britain, the Government is facing calls to test people returning from Spain to prevent them having to quarantine for 14 days. 

Spain was abruptly dropped from the UK's 'travel corridor' list on Saturday, throwing the resumption of summer holidays into turmoil. 

Airport tests in Britain are under review, but Number 10's test and trace supremo Baroness Dido Harding said on Sunday that testing people arriving from Spain would not save them from having to quarantine. 

Speaking to Times Radio, she said: 'Unfortunately, although we'd love it to be true that if you have a test today, we can be confident in saying you are not infectious and about to come down with disease, that's not the way the virus works. 

'A test today is only as good as saying you haven't got the disease today. 

'The incubation period can be quite a long time, which is why if you've been in a very high-risk environment - and right now the judgment of our scientists and clinicians is that Spain is a high-risk environment - we need you to isolate for 14 days because you might test negative today and test positive tomorrow or the next day, right up to the end of that 14-day period.' 

German health minister Jens Spahn and his regional counterparts agreed on Friday that returning tourists would be offered free voluntary tests. 

Merkel's chief of staff Helge Braun said health ministers would today discuss making the checks compulsory.    

'I think that we'll find a solution relatively quickly,' Braun said, adding that it was necessary to act now to bring infection numbers down because it would be harder to control the spread of the disease in autumn and winter. 

'Mostly it is the considerate people who have behaved very cautiously on vacation anyway who take up the voluntary offers, while those who are more careless don't take a voluntary test,' Braun told RBB Inforadio. 

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has imposed at three airports including Duesseldorf and Dortmund for travellers arriving from high-risk areas.

These include popular holiday destinations such as Turkey and the United States, although Spain, France and Britain are not seen as high-risk.    

Health workers wearing protective suits collect samples at a testing station in Germany today after a local outbreak on the premises of a cucumber farm

Health workers wearing protective suits collect samples at a testing station in Germany today after a local outbreak on the premises of a cucumber farm 

Germany has seen a slight increase in cases, registering its highest weekly total since May, although numbers are still below 1,000 a day

Germany has seen a slight increase in cases, registering its highest weekly total since May, although numbers are still below 1,000 a day 

Germany's death toll has not increased for two days and the country's overall fatality rate is much lower than in Britain, Spain, France or Italy

Germany's death toll has not increased for two days and the country's overall fatality rate is much lower than in Britain, Spain, France or Italy 

Munich airport has also set up a testing centre, and checks will now be offered at Bavaria's two biggest railway stations in Munich and Nuremberg.  

'We cannot completely prevent corona, so the goal must be to detect it in time to stop it from spreading,' Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder said.

'My worry is not that there will be one big Ischgl, but that there will be many mini-Ischgls,' he added, referring to the Austrian ski resort that was an early European hot spot in March.

'We are already seeing this in Spain, but also in other places,' he said, adding that German residents' trips to visit families abroad are also a concern.   

Soeder also joined a growing chorus of calls for tests to become compulsory for holidaymakers returning to Germany.

'We are preparing everything so that if the federal government gives the go-ahead, we can implement it immediately,' he said. 

Amid the deliberations over summer travel, some 500 workers were sent into quarantine on a large Bavarian farm in order to contain a mass coronavirus outbreak.

At least 174 seasonal workers have tested positive for the virus in the municipality of Mamming, most of them from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine.

Soeder said Monday that Bavaria would test all seasonal farm workers in the state and increase fines for farms that breach regulations to 25,000 euros (£23,000).    

Passengers wait for their check-in at the airport in Duesseldorf in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia which has accounted for many of Germany's recent new cases

Passengers wait for their check-in at the airport in Duesseldorf in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia which has accounted for many of Germany's recent new cases 

Germany last week saw 3,695 new coronavirus cases, up from 2,770 the week before and the highest weekly figure since May. 

In addition, the closely-watched R rate has been above the critical threshold of 1.0 for much of the last two weeks. The latest figure is 1.22. 

The Robert Koch diseases institute (RKI) says that the recent increase is 'very concerning' and is occurring in a number of states.  

'Nationwide, there are many smaller incidents in different administrative districts, which are connected in different ways, e.g. larger celebrations in the family settings, leisure activities, jobs, but also in community and health facilities,' the RKI says. 

'In addition, Covid-19 cases are increasingly being identified among people returning from travels outside of Germany.' 

Michael Kretschmer, the premier of the eastern state of Saxony, warned that the second wave was already underway.  

Kretschmer - a member of Angela Merkel's CDU party - told the Rheinische Post newspaper: 'The second wave of coronavirus is already here.

'It is already taking place every day. We have new clusters of infections every day which could become very high numbers.'

Germany has seen 205,609 cases and 9,118 deaths in total, a considerably lower death toll than in Britain, Italy, Spain or France.    

Germany's high risk countries 

Afghanistan 

Albania

Algeria

Angola

Antigua and Barbuda 

Argentina

Armenia

Azerbaijan 

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belarus

Belize

Benin

Bhutan

Bolivia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Brazil

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cabo Verde

Cameroon 

Central African Republic 

Chad 

Chile

Colombia

Comoros

Congo DR

Congo Rep 

Costa Rica  

Dominica

Dominican Republic

Djibouti

Ecuador

Egypt 

El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea 

Eritrea

Eswatini

Ethiopia 

Gabon

Gambia

Ghana

Grenada

Guatemala

Guinea

Guinea Bissau

Guyana

Haiti

Honduras

India

Indonesia

Iraq

Iran

Israel

Ivory Coast   

Jamaica 

Kazakhstan 

Kenya

Kyrgyzstan 

Korea (People's Republic)

Kosovo

Cuba

Kuwait 

 

 

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Germany's high risk countries 

Lesotho

Lebanon

Liberia

Libya

Luxembourg

Madagascar

Malawi

Maldives

Mali

Morocco

Mauritania

Mexico

Mongolia

Montenegro

Mozambique

Namibia

Nepal

Nicaragua

Niger

Nigeria

North Macedonia

Oman

Pakistan

Palestinian territories

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Qatar 

Republic of Moldova

Rwanda

Russian Federation

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 

Sao Tome and Principe

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Serbia

Seychelles

Sierra Leone 

Somalia

Sri Lanka

South Africa

Sudan

South Sudan

Suriname

Syrian Arab Republic

Tajikistan

Tanzania

Timor Leste (East Timor)

Togo

Trinidad Tobago 

Turkey

Turkmenistan

Uganda

Ukraine

United States

Uzbekistan 

United Arab Emirates

Venezuela 

Yemen 

Zambia 

Zimbabwe