The EU had several painful experiences with border closings during the corona pandemic. In the first phase, the barriers went down in March 2020, and last spring, countries like Germany again introduced travel restrictions to countries like Austria. In view of the spread of the Omikron variant, will there be restrictions on cross-border travel again?
The outgoing EU Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) was confident on Tuesday morning in Brussels before his last appearance in the circle of his European counterparts that there would be no more tightened border controls within the EU. So far, countries like Germany have issued entry restrictions for people in southern Africa in view of the spread of Omikron. With a view to possible additional intra-European entry restrictions, he added: “I don’t see that today. I don’t think that’s necessary either.”
“It has nothing to do with vaccination bullying”
Rather, it is important to make a stronger distinction between vaccinated and non-vaccinated people in many areas of life, stressed Spahn. “That has nothing to do with vaccination bullying,” said Spahn. The excessive number of unvaccinated people could lead to an overload of the health system everywhere in the EU.
With the currently applicable entry regulations for EU countries, it actually makes a difference within the Schengen area whether you are vaccinated or not. Those who have not been vaccinated or have recovered usually have to show a negative PCR test. For example, when entering Austria from another EU country, the PCR test must not be older than 72 hours.
Conditions for returnees from high-risk countries
In the case of Germany, the distinction between vaccinated and non-vaccinated persons within the EU concerns returnees from the high-risk countries Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and the Czech Republic. In these cases, anyone who has not been vaccinated or has recovered has to go into quarantine for ten days. Free testing with a negative test is possible after five days at the earliest.
Spahn referred to the assessment of the EU disease control authority ECDC, according to which Omikron will soon become the dominant Corona variant in Europe. This can be expected at the beginning of the coming year.
Source From: Tagesspiegel
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