Variants-wary Germany turns back 5,000 at border

20:45, February 15, 2021

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  Germany tightens borders to keep COVID variants at bay

  Germany on Sunday implemented more measures to keep coronavirus variants at bay, banning travel from Czech border regions and Austrias Tyrol after a troubling surge in contagious mutations.In this file photo taken on December 19, 2020 Passengers line up at a Covid-19 test centre at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on December 19, 2020. (Photo: AFP)A thousand police officers have been mobilised to ensure strict border controls and state-owned rail company Deutsche Bahn suspended services to and from the affected areas.Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced Thursday that the states of Bavaria and Saxony had asked the government "to class Tyrol and border regions of the Czech Republic as virus mutation areas, and to implement border controls," and that Chancellor Angela Merkel had agreed to do so from Sunday.Germany in late January banned most travellers from countries classed as so-called mutation areas or places hardest hit by new, more contagious coronavirus variants. These include Britain, South Africa, Brazil and Portugal.Only a handful of exceptions are allowed to enter Germany from these countries, including returning Germans and essential workers such as doctors. Trade links will also be maintained.But even those allowed to cross the restricted border "are likely to be turned away" if they cant provide proof of a negative Covid test, warned Bavarian premier Markus Soeder, whose state borders the Tyrol.Europes biggest economy has halved its daily infections rate after more than two months of painful curbs that shuttered most shops, schools and restaurants. But fears are growing that the positive trend could be compromised by travellers from border regions that are reporting sky-high case rates.Merkels government is in particular concerned by the South African variant circulating in Tyrol and the British variant in the Czech Republic.On Saturday, motorists continued to cross the b...

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  Germany warns neighbours of border closures on virus fears

  A woman walks past shop windows of a closed hairdresser in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, amid the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic. (File photo: AFP)German leaders warned Thursday that they could not rule out shutting Germanys borders with its neighbours because of troublingly high coronavirus infections fuelled by more contagious variants in countries like Austria and the Czech Republic."We believe it would be sensible to declare both (Austria and Czech Republic) as mutation areas. This will likely happen," said Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder. He had warned late Wednesday that if the Czech Republic was unable to take appropriate measures to curb contagion, then a "border closure must also be an issue".Germany in late January banned most travellers from countries classed as so-called mutation areas or places hardest hit by new, more contagious coronavirus variants.Only a handful of exceptions are allowed to enter Germany from these countries, including returning Germans and essential workers.With neighbouring EU countries continuing to report high infection numbers in part fuelled by variants, German leaders fear that keeping the borders open could compromise the countrys efforts to curb contagion. Baden-Wuerttemberg state premier Winfried Kretschmann said in a regional parliament session that if virus variants were to keep propagating in neighbouring countries, then "of course that can in the extreme case also lead to border closures". Austria has already ordered restrictions to stop people leaving the mountainous Tyrol region, which Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says has been hit by the biggest outbreak in Europe of the South African variant.Fearing superspreader hotspotAnyone leaving the region must now show a negative coronavirus test, with fines of up to 1,450 euros ($1,750) for anyone who fails to comply.But Soeder, whose region borders Tyrol, said he feared that "a second Ischgl" was in the mak...

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  US records nearly 1,000 coronavirus variants infections

  Nearly 1,000 infection cases of coronavirus variants have been reported in a total of 44 US states, according to the latest data of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).