Covid-19: Germany places the French Grand Est region in red

German police officers in the town of Kehl on the border with France, October 15, 2020. AP Photo / Jean-Francois Badias

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2 min

It was the only French region not to be marked "risk zone" by our German neighbors.

From this Friday evening at midnight, only cross-border workers and schoolchildren enrolled in a German school will be allowed to cross the border without a PCR test.

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With our correspondent in Strasbourg,

Angélique Férat

The decision did not surprise, Germany had already closed its border during the first wave last March and in recent days it has stepped up measures to curb the circulation of the virus on its territory.

For Germany, an area is classified as red above 50 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

The figures flirt with 100 cases in all the departments of the Grand Est.

A test or quarantine

The question arose more precisely about the total closure of the border

as in March

.

But this time the German Länder have chosen flexibility.

No doubt because in March, the closure of most of the bridges over the Rhine had caused huge traffic jams and delivery delays.

From Saturday morning to travel to Germany from Alsace or Moselle, you will need a negative PCR test of less than 48 hours.

Otherwise, it will be quarantine.

French schoolchildren and frontier workers are exempt.

The police will only carry out flying checks.

Alsatians and Mosellans will even benefit from a 24-hour permission to shop across the Rhine.

But already on Thursday, thousands of French people flocked to German stores to stock up on gasoline, cigarettes, baby diapers and toilet paper.

►Also listen: Accents d'Europe - Europe is not yet at the time of culture without borders

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  • France

  • Germany

  • Coronavirus

  • Health and medicine

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