Germany could see 100,000 infections a day if the third wave of coronavirus spreads unchecked, the head of the RKI public health institute has warned.
Fears that the third Covid wave could be the worst so far have prompted a clampdown on borders,
Negative tests will be required for airport arrivals from Tuesday and all of France has been declared high-risk.
From Sunday anyone travelling from France will have to submit a negative test and go into 10 days’ quarantine.
Random German checks and compulsory tests will be enforced on the French border, says France’s foreign minister. “The pandemic in Germany is exploding faster than they thought,” said Jean-Yves Le Drian.
With infections running at more than 20,000 a day, German Health Minister Jens Spahn warned: “If this continues unchecked we run the risk of our health system hitting breaking point in April.”
Germany is among a number of European countries where Covid infections have been rising fast this week. Cases are also up in Poland by 35%, and health officials in both countries say the spread of the UK (Kent) variant is behind the surge.
Slovakia and the Czech Republic are also now seen as high-risk, but they have been downgraded from the highest alert level of “virus mutation area”, aimed at stopping almost all travel. Czech infection levels have begun to fall, down a quarter on last week.
Austria’s Tyrol was also classed as a “virus mutation area” but from Sunday is being downgraded even further.
Source: Fiilafmonline/BBC
