Germany gets tough at French border

Travellers from France’s Moselle region must show negative test result

Germany classed France’s Covid-battered Moselle region as a high risk area for virus variants yesterday, triggering tougher entry requirements at the border between the two neighbours.

France’s eastern Moselle region is now listed as an area “at particularly high risk of infection due to widespread occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 virus variants”, Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for disease control announced.

From Tuesday, cross-border travellers from Moselle will need to be able to show a recent negative coronavirus test.

Stringent measures

Germany has already introduced tough checks at its borders with the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol region, ignoring calls from Brussels to keep borders within the bloc open.

At those crossings, only Germans and non-German residents are allowed to enter, as well as cross-border commuters working in certain categories of jobs.

Every vehicle is stopped and occupants must produce a negative test that is less than 48 hours old.

Germany has grown increasingly concerned in recent weeks about the rapid spread of new, more contagious strains of the coronavirus, especially those first detected in Britain and South Africa.