Germany will abolish mandatory coronavirus tests for travelers returning from high-risk areas abroad and focus on testing people with symptoms or those who have been in contact with covidium-19, Health Minister Jens Spann said yesterday. .
He said that during the summer holidays, the number of tests in Germany almost doubled to 900,000 a week, partly to identify people who had contracted the disease abroad.
People returning from epidemiologically high-risk areas were provided with free testing at German border crossings, which allowed them to avoid the mandatory two-week quarantine if their results were negative.
Travelers returning from high-risk areas, which include most countries outside the European Union and some regions within it, will in future have to go through mandatory quarantine for at least five days until the test results arrive, which may no longer be the case. be free, unless requested by a doctor.
Minister Spann did not say when the testing strategy would change, but the decision is likely to be made today at a meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the governors of all 16 provinces.
