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Travel to the Belgian capital Brussels (photo) has long been discouraged
Photo: Francois Lenoir / REUTERS
Germany has due to high Corona infection numbers next to all
Belgium
and
Iceland
classified and individual regions in nine other European countries as risk areas.
The Robert Koch Institute updated its risk list accordingly and
included parts of Great Britain for the first time, including
Wales
and
Northern Ireland
.
In France, the
Pays de la Loire
and
Burgundy
regions
were added.
This means that in Germany's largest neighboring country, only the Grand Est border region, which was once particularly badly affected by the pandemic, is excluded from classification as a risk area.
In Belgium, only the capital Brussels was recently listed as a risk area.
The expansion to the entire state now also affects the border regions with North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
For the first time, the federal government added areas in the two Baltic states of
Lithuania
and
Estonia
to the risk list.
Regions in
Ireland
,
Croatia
,
Slovenia
,
Hungary
and
Romania
were also added.
But there is also good news: For Freiburg (Friborg) in Switzerland and the Croatian holiday destinations Zadar and Sibenik-Knin, the status as a risk area has been lifted.
Poland is the only neighboring country not on the list
The Foreign Office published a travel warning for Belgium, Romania and Lithuania on the Internet that evening.
The classification as a risk area and the subsequent travel warning are issued if the number of new corona infections exceeds the mark of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days.
The travel warning is not a ban, but is intended to have a significant deterrent effect especially for tourists.
However, it also has a positive side for consumers: it allows vacationers to cancel bookings free of charge.
With the new decisions of the federal government, 17 out of 27 EU countries are now at least partially corona risk areas, Belgium, Spain, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg are even completely.
Iceland does not belong to the European Union but to the Schengen area that is free of border controls.
Poland is the only one of Germany's nine neighboring countries that is not yet on the risk list.
But the number of infections is also increasing there.
Among the nine EU countries without a corona risk area are the popular holiday countries Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus.
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bam / dpa
