Germany re-classifies Britain as risk area over Indian Covid-19 variant

FRANKFURT: Germany’s health agency on Friday re-classified Britain as a coronavirus “risk area” over concerns about the spread of the Indian Covid-19 variant there, but travellers will still be able to avoid quarantine under updated rules.

The move by Germany’s Robert Koch Institute puts Great Britain and Northern Ireland back in the lowest-level risk category, barely a month after they were taken off the list following a decline in new infections thanks to widespread vaccinations.

“The classification is due, despite (a low incidence rate), to the at least a limited occurrence of the B.1.617.2 variant in the United Kingdom,” the RKI said in a statement.

The variant, first detected in hard-hit India, is believed to be more contagious than the original strain and has been classified by the World Health Organisation as a “variant of concern”.

The British government on Friday said the variant was spreading “increasing rapidly” in parts of England, with identified cases doubling from 520 last week to 1,313 this week.

Germany this week eased rules for travellers coming from “risk areas”, the lowest of three risk levels, allowing unvaccinated people to avoid the previous 10-day quarantine if they can show a negative test.

Those who are fully vaccinated or can prove they have recovered from Covid by showing a positive PCR test that is at least 28 days old, do not need to quarantine.

Anyone coming from a risk country must still register their trip online with German authorities, and unvaccinated people entering Germany by plane must show a negative test before boarding.