The federal government is significantly easing the entry restrictions imposed on Portugal, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Russia, India and Nepal because of the spread of particularly contagious corona variants.

On Wednesday, the five countries will be downgraded from the virus variant area to the high incidence area, as the Robert Koch Institute announced on Monday evening.

This means that entry into Germany is possible again for all groups of people.

For those who have been completely vaccinated and recovered, the quarantine obligation is no longer applicable, for everyone else it is shortened.

India had already been classified as a virus variant area at the end of April, Nepal and Great Britain followed in May, and the EU country Portugal and Russia did not follow until June 29.

In this highest corona risk category, there are drastic entry restrictions:

  • Airlines, bus and train companies are not allowed to transport people from virus variant areas to Germany unless they are German citizens or have a place of residence in Germany.

  • Anyone entering Germany from virus variant areas must be in quarantine for 14 days - even if he or she has been fully vaccinated or has recovered.

With the downgrading to a high incidence area, the ban on transport is no longer applicable, so entry into Germany is basically possible again for all persons using all means of transport.

Those who have not been vaccinated or recovered only have to be in quarantine for ten days, but can shorten it to five days with a second test.

Chancellor Angela Merkel had already announced the travel facilitation last week, but without naming all countries and a specific date.

A week earlier, at the EU summit in Brussels, she had unsuccessfully insisted on common travel rules in the EU in order to curb the spread of the delta variant.

This variant is now also widespread in Germany, even if the number of infections here is significantly lower than in Portugal and Great Britain.

With the downgrading of the five countries, the number of virus variant areas will drop again from 16 to 11. Among the remaining countries are Brazil, Uruguay, South Africa and several other countries in Africa.