Germany to end mandatory tests for travellers, bans protests

BERLIN (AP) — Germany will end mandatory coronavirus tests for travellers returning from high-risk areas abroad and again focus its testing strategy on people with symptoms or possible exposure to COVID-19 patients, the country’s health minister said Wednesday.

Health Minister Jens Spahn said that over the summer vacation period the number of virus tests performed in Germany nearly doubled, to 900,000 per week, in part to identify people who caught the virus during trips abroad.

People coming home from coronavirus risk areas were offered free tests at airports, train stations, and highway stops, allowing them to cut short the required two-week quarantine if their result came back negative.

Travellers returning from high-risk areas, which include most countries outside the European Union and some regions inside the bloc, will in the future be required to go into mandatory quarantines for at least five days before taking a test, which may no longer be free unless ordered by a doctor.

“With the end of the vacation period ... this risk is going down again,” Spahn told reporters in Berlin.

“We have to focus more on patients with symptoms and those who had contact with COVID patients.”

Spahn did not say when exactly the testing strategy would change, but it is likely that that decision will be made at a meeting on Thursday between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors.

The change in the country’s testing strategy is also due to Germany’s labs reaching the limits of their capacities, Spahn said.

The operators of Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s biggest, criticised the decision to focus on quarantining, rather than testing travellers.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us @onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.