Huge jubilation in Africa, disappointment in Latin America: In the fight against the spread of particularly dangerous mutants of the coronavirus, Germany will in future only classify two instead of eleven countries as virus variant areas.

According to information from the FAZ, the Foreign Office as well as the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Health have agreed on this.

The house of Jens Spahn (CDU) confirmed: "The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) will publish the new classifications this afternoon after the decision." The decision-making has not yet been completed.

Claudia Bröll

Freelance Africa correspondent based in Cape Town.

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Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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Brazil and Uruguay are likely to remain the only variant areas in which the gamma variant has been identified.

This means that vacation and business trips from these countries remain difficult.

For non-Europeans, they are almost impossible due to the current transport ban.

That hits the economy hard, because Brazil is the most important German trading partner in Latin America and one of the most important German production locations in general.

In contrast, the other nine countries, all of which are in Africa, will in future only be regarded as so-called high-risk areas.

It is easier to enter Germany from these areas than from variant areas: The quarantine is only ten instead of fourteen days and can be ended after five days with a negative test.

People who have been fully vaccinated with approved vaccines and come from high-risk areas do not need to be quarantined.

Also, unlike in variant areas, there is no transport ban for travelers without German or European citizenship. 

Delta variant spreads more strongly

With regard to Africa, Germany wants to protect itself against the beta variant that first appeared in South Africa. However, it is increasingly being replaced there by the delta variant, which is also prevalent in Germany and is therefore no longer used for classification as a virus variant area. Experts had long considered a re-evaluation to be overdue. Pressure also came from scientists and from the African Association of German Business.

The relief is great in the downgraded states of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Tourism is one of the most important industries in the region. Millions of people are involved. In addition, the income plays a key role for nature and animal protection. From January to April this year, 91 percent fewer tourists from Europe arrived in South Africa than in the previous year. Many German vacationers had deterred the strict quarantine regulations on their return.

Beyond tourism, the removal of the transport ban for non-Europeans is welcome news.

In the past few weeks there has been increasing protest against the ban.

In South Africa, several citizens had started a petition against this because they could not start jobs and study places in Germany that had already been promised.

German companies were also unable to send local employees to Germany for training courses or conferences.

German chambers of commerce abroad in Africa and South America had also appealed to the federal government to reconsider the classification.

Andorra as a new high risk area

According to the ministries' drafts, Andorra is to be declared a new high-risk area in Europe.

In Europe these are also Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and Cyprus, in Eurasia Georgia and Russia are high-risk areas.

The lowest category of risk areas - previously called simple risk areas - is to be omitted in the future.

This is provided by the new coronavirus entry regulation, which comes into force on Sunday.

It also stipulates that in future everyone who enters the Federal Republic of Germany must show proof of vaccination, current testing or recovery - regardless of the means of transport and the country of origin.

So far, the regulation only applied to air travelers.