For vacation returnees and other entrants to Germany, uniform Corona rules will apply nationwide starting this Thursday. For those who have been fully vaccinated and those who have recovered, regulations on quarantine and testing requirements will no longer apply - unless you come from an area with new, more infectious mutants. According to a regulation approved by the cabinet, non-vaccinated persons can also avoid the previously standard quarantine of ten days after entry if they come from a "risk area" with a seven-day incidence of more than 50. To do so, they must prove that they have recently tested negative. This should also be possible by uploading the proof in the digital entry application.

The regulation is also intended to facilitate summer travel in Europe, for example when vaccinated parents travel together with non-vaccinated children. How travel countries are classified for German vacationers can be seen on the website of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The central factor for classification as a "risk area" is more than 50 reported new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days.In addition, there are "high incidence areas" from a threshold of 200 and "virus variant areas" with new mutants. During the return from high-incidence areas, it should remain that one can shorten the quarantine by testing negative after five days at the earliest. Returners from virus variant areas must continue to be quarantined at home for 14 days, which cannot be shortened by testing.

Due to falling new infection figures, more and more German states are relaxing the Corona rules for regions where the federal emergency brake of 100 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days no longer applies. As early as Saturday, Baden-Württemberg wants to relax the rules for counties where the incidence falls below 100 for five days in the catering, tourism and leisure sectors. Thus, outdoor and indoor catering is to reopen between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. with hygiene requirements and test concepts, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur learned from government circles in Stuttgart. It is also planned that in the districts with low incidence rates, hotels and guesthouses will be able to reopen and vacation homes can be rented out.

"We already need strict tests"

Corona rules are to be relaxed in Schleswig-Holstein from Monday, especially in tourism and gastronomy, outdoor contacts and leisure activities. Lower Saxony will again allow tourist overnight stays and outdoor catering for residents of the state on Monday. In other states, relaxations are planned for Pentecost.The seven-day incidence recently approached 100 nationwide; on Wednesday, the RKI reported it at 107.8. Germany is also making progress in vaccinating against the coronavirus. On Tuesday, more than one million people were vaccinated in one day for the third time, according to the RKI. More than a third of the population received a first vaccination. In the second vaccinations, the mark of ten percent was reached.

The SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach was confident with regard to the summer, but also turned his cautionary gaze to the fall. "The figures are developing very positively. There is nothing standing in the way of a relaxed summer with significant easing, if we do not become careless now," Lauterbach told the "Rheinische Post." "However, in order to prevent a fourth wave in the fall, we must make provisions, especially for travelers returning home," he said.At least 20 percent of the population would be without protection for the foreseeable future because they cannot or do not want to be vaccinated. "We therefore already need strict testing at airports and a quarantine of travelers until the test result is available for those coming from mutation areas," Lauterbach said.

Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians