Germany withdraws travel ban on India and 4 other countries hit by COVID-19 Delta variant

Germany will be lifting a ban on most of the travellers from five countries including India which were infected by the new 'Delta' variant. German envoy Walter J Lindner made this announcement on Twitter. The five countries are Portugal, North Ireland, Russia, India, and Nepal and now they will be removed from the 'virus variant' list. "From tomorrow Germany is removing the entry ban and easing travel rules for five countries where Delta variant is widespread, including India", tweeted the German ambassador to India. 

German Public Health Agency made an announcement

The German Public Health Agency said that five countries will be removed from the list of "virus variant areas" and will be classified as "high incidence areas" from Wednesday. This means that it will make it easy for people to travel to Germany. Also, people who have recently recovered from COVID or have taken both their vaccination doses don’t need to isolate or quarantine themselves on return or arrival. On the other hand, people who are not yet vaccinated will have to provide a negative Covid test report before boarding the flight and will also have to quarantine themselves for 10 days followed by a negative Covid test.

Delta Variant in India

The Delta variant of COVID-19 was first detected in India. It was classified as a "virus variant area" followed by the addition of Nepal and the UK in the list. Later on, several other countries were also added to the list as a result of rising COVID-19 cases. A total of 16 countries were included in the list of "virus variant areas". 

Seeing the seriousness of the situation, Germany had to put a ban on the entry of people from India as well as from other virus variant countries. There are countries where variants other than Delta are circulating include South Africa, Britain, Brazil, and many more. With a dip in the cases of Delta variant, these five countries being excluded from the list makes it to 11. The rest countries are still at risk of infection and will still be considered as "virus variant areas".

(Source: ANI)