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Berlin (dpa) - In the fight against the spread of dangerous mutations of the corona virus, entry from the French border region of Moselle to Germany is made more difficult.
With effect from Tuesday, the federal government classified the region bordering Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate on Sunday as a so-called virus variant area, as the Robert Koch Institute announced on the Internet.
In future, travelers from the department with its approximately one million inhabitants will have to show a negative corona test that is no older than 48 hours when entering Germany.
A quick test is sufficient.
Airlines as well as bus and train companies are no longer allowed to carry passengers from Moselle to Germany.
Exceptions are, among others, German citizens and foreigners living in Germany.
The movement of goods should not be impaired either.
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Stationary border controls such as those at the borders with the Czech Republic and the Austrian state of Tyrol should not exist at the border with France, according to dpa information.
“In all of these considerations, border controls are not up for discussion”, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) had already assured on Friday.
Chancellor Angela Merkel had previously made a similar statement.
Both had pointed out that the federal states of Bavaria and Saxony had expressly asked for stationary controls at the borders with the Czech Republic and Tyrol.
France's Secretary of State for Europe, Clément Beaune, said he regretted the decision.
The measures to fight the virus have been tightened in Moselle.
The President of the Grand Est region bordering Germany, Jean Rottner, called it “brutal” and “one-sided”.
In the past few days one had rather the impression of a fruitful cooperation with the German authorities, he told the broadcaster Franceinfo.
In the Moselle department, there had been an increased incidence of coronavirus variants in recent weeks.
According to Prime Minister Jean Castex, 60 percent of positive cases in Moselle are the South African variant.
The Moselle department is one of around 100 departments in France and belongs to the Grand Est region.
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In Moselle, the South African tribe arrived before the British and therefore gained the upper hand, said France's director of the national health authority, Jérôme Salomon, of the Sunday newspaper “Journal du Dimanche”.
Why that happened can now probably no longer be found out.
He stressed that there had been a very quick response in the region, which showed that it was possible to control the development of the epidemic.
In agreement with the German side, France had already tightened its entry rules into the Moselle region last week.
Only cross-border commuters who come for work are exempt from a test.
In general, everyone who enters France needs a negative corona test that is not older than 72 hours.
For cross-border commuters, for example, there were exceptions.
With Moselle, 14 countries and two regions abroad are considered virus variant areas from Tuesday, including Slovakia, Portugal and Ireland in addition to the Czech Republic and Tyrol.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210228-99-627623 / 2
RKI on the classifications