COVID-19: Germany to lift travel warning for most countries from July 1

As European countries are gearing up to open their borders, Germany recently announced that it will be lifting its pandemic travel warning for most countries from July 1. This was announced by Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who stated that it will help bring back more normalcy as citizens have been increasingly vaccinated against COVID-19. He, however, added that restrictions will be in place for countries where virus variants are still spreading.

As per the authorities, countries that are recording infection rates of 50-200 cases per 100000 people in seven days would not be considered a ‘risk-zone’ anymore.
Reports have it that restrictions will remain in place for countries that are recording higher levels of infections, or where virus variants are circulating, such as India and Britain.

Regarding opening the borders, the Foreign Minister added that with summer, hope and confidence is returning to Germany. In many places, the number of infections is falling and more and more citizens are vaccinated, he added.Meanwhile, the Minister stressed that lifting of the warning should, however, not be looked upon as an ‘invitation to carelessness’.

Reportedly, around 47 per cent of the population, i.e, nearly 83 million citizens, have already received one dose of the vaccine, whereas 24 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated.

Chancellor Merkel in this regard continued to be cautiously optimistic, and asserted, "We have a summer ahead that has a lot of possibilities, but we must not be carefree, we must keep looking at the situation very closely."