Thousands of travelers in Germany await test results

BERLIN — Tens of thousands of travelers who were tested for the coronavirus upon entering Germany in the last two weeks waited Thursday to learn whether they were infected as Bavaria state officials acknowledged that many recipients had yet to be notified, including hundreds with positive results.

Bavarian Gov. Markus Soeder postponed his vacation to the North Sea coast to deal with the holdup, which came as Germany reported its highest number of new virus cases since May 1.

The state Health Ministry said there had been delays in releasing 44,000 test results to people who were checked on their way into Germany, primarily at highway rest stops, including 908 who had tested positive.

“The breakdown that occurred is very irritating and regrettable,” Soeder said.

The governor said state Health Minister Melanie Huml offered her resignation but that he did not accept it and Humi still had his confidence.

“It was a failure in the implementation, but not in the strategy,” Soeder said.

Huml said that government employees and staff members from a private company had worked through the night on processing the results and were making calls to all those who had tested positive.

She could not say how many had been reached or where all the people with pending results lived, saying that many of those tested had provided cellphone numbers so their locations were unknown.

Bavaria has offered free voluntary tests at airports, as well as specific train stations and highway rest areas, and has carried out some 85,000 since the end of July, Huml said.

The interest was higher than expected, and the delays almost were exclusively at the rest areas and train stations where some 60,000 were tested since July 30, officials said.