Travelers returning from high-risk areas will be tested for free, said Germany (Representation)
Berlin:
Germany will make coronavirus testing mandatory for travelers returning from risk areas, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday, as fears grow over the rising number of cases blamed on summer vacation and to local epidemics.
“We need to prevent returning travelers from infecting others unnoticed and thus triggering new chains of infection. I will therefore order mandatory testing for travelers in risk areas,” Spahn wrote on Twitter.
The regulations will go into effect next week, the health ministry tweeted, and testing will be free.
Debate over coronavirus testing escalated over the weekend after Germany’s 16 states agreed to free testing for all returning travelers on Friday, but stopped before handing in testing mandatory.
After a meeting with state officials on Monday, Chancellery Chief of Staff Helge Braun said there was “a great willingness to move closer to these mandatory tests.”
“The question of how this can be implemented now needs to be looked at in detail and I think we will come to a solution relatively quickly,” he said.
Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder previously joined a growing chorus of voices calling for testing to become mandatory for returning holidaymakers.
“We are preparing everything so that if the federal government gives the green light, we can implement it immediately,” he said.
However, the move has also drawn criticism from those who believe that too much reliance on testing could lead to complacency.
“Spot tests offer no security,” said Ute Teichert, head of a national association of doctors, in an interview with media group Funke. “On the contrary: they can lead to a false sense of security.”
Bavarian agricultural epidemic
Nonetheless, politicians plan to step up testing in an attempt to isolate infections early.
In Bavaria, Soeder said the southern German state will set up coronavirus testing sites at its two largest stations as well as key points on highways.
In addition to the existing test centers at Bavarian airports, tests will now be offered at Munich and Nuremberg stations, as well as on three major motorways close to the Austrian border.
“We can’t completely prevent corona, so the goal has to be to detect it in time to prevent it from spreading,” Soeder said.
Soeder said Bavaria would also test all seasonal farm workers in the state, following a massive coronavirus outbreak on a large farm.
Some 500 workers have been quarantined following the outbreak, as at least 174 seasonal workers tested positive for the virus on the farm in Mamming Municipality, most of them from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and from Ukraine.
Workers wearing masks could be seen on Monday walking the steps of containers used to house them at the isolated rural site.
Residents of Mamming commune have been offered free coronavirus tests, with various makeshift testing centers set up in the region.
A woman who gave Brigitte her name said she was coming to get tested so she could hold her baby grandchild without worrying about the virus spreading.
“I’m not too worried because the workers were housed very separately,” she said. “But I want to be sure.”
To curb further outbreaks on farms, Soeder said the state would increase fines for farms breaking regulations to 25,000 euros ($ 29,400) – five times the current penalty.
Germany has been more successful than many of its neighbors in suppressing the virus, reporting just over 200,000 cases and 9,118 deaths to date, according to the Robert Koch Institute for Disease Control.
But the country has also been hit by repeated outbreaks of coronavirus in slaughterhouses, keeping authorities on high alert.
“From what we’ve been through the last few days, with over 800 cases per day in some cases, we have to get back to a situation where we are well below 500,” Braun said.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
