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Berlin (dpa) - Because of the new variant of the corona virus, the entry of flight passengers from Great Britain at several German airports was initially stopped on Sunday evening.
Since midnight, Germany has banned flights from the United Kingdom anyway.
In Hanover, this affected 63 passengers on a flight from London in the evening.
Preparations have been made for emergency overnight stays at the airport.
A spokesman for the federal police said a woman wanted to fly back to London, everyone else had to undergo a so-called PCR test.
A spokeswoman for the Hanover region said they would have to stay on the airport premises until the test results were available.
You expect the results to be available on Monday, but that is not certain.
According to information from Hanover Airport, camp beds were set up in Terminal D, and passengers are also fed there.
"Our goal is to prevent the new type of virus from moving unnoticed to Lower Saxony," said Andreas Kranz, head of the public health department in the Hanover region.
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In Stuttgart, air travelers from London who landed in the evening were brought in small groups to the airport's corona test center and tested there, as a spokesman said.
Then - if the result was negative - they could have picked up their luggage and driven home, but they would have to go into quarantine there.
How many passengers there were was not known.
The federal police in Stuttgart generally announced that those who landed on Sunday would be offered a corona test and that they would be informed of the known quarantine regulations of the federal states.
"We know about the resulting inconvenience for travelers, especially now in the Christmas traffic," it said.
"All partners are working flat out to ensure safe entry, but at the same time not to stress the passengers excessively."
The Berlin correspondent for the English weekly newspaper “The Economist”, Tom Nuttall, had apparently also landed on board a plane from Great Britain in Berlin and reported something similar on Twitter.
The police had told the passengers that they were being tested: Anyone who had a negative result would not be sent back.
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According to initial findings by British scientists, the corona variant recently discovered in south-east England is up to 70 percent more contagious than the previously known form.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior therefore instructed the Federal Police on Sunday to systematically check travelers from Great Britain and South Africa with immediate effect.
A ministry spokesman in Berlin announced that this applies to the correct registration in the digital entry form.
Necessary infection protection measures should be coordinated closely with the locally responsible health authorities.
Travelers would have to be prepared for longer waiting times at the borders.
Only a little later, Germany completely banned flights from Great Britain to Germany from midnight on Monday.
The Federal Ministry of Transport issued a corresponding order.
Exceptions are pure cargo flights, flights with medical staff or only with crews on board who want to return to Germany.
This serves to protect the population in Germany and to "limit the entry and rapid spread of the new virus variants," it said.
The ban will initially apply until December 31.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) announced an additional ordinance this Monday that will restrict all travel to Great Britain and also to South Africa, which is also affected by the virus variant.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201221-99-767182 / 2