Germany will strengthen health controls for travelers arriving from France, announced this Friday on France Info, the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian.
"The explosion of the pandemic in Germany is going faster than they thought and therefore they will strengthen the health tests at the entrance to German territory due to the extension of the pandemic at the moment in France", said the head of French diplomacy.
"This means more reinforced random health checks than what existed until now, with mandatory tests and recommended quarantine," he said.
For frontier workers, discussions are underway with the regions concerned to "try to adapt as best as possible [these measures] and ensure that these employees are penalized as little as possible".
"But there will be an obligation for health tests," he noted.
🗣️ Germany: "The reality is that the explosion of the pandemic in Germany is going faster than they thought", explains Jean-Yves Le Drian.
For border workers, there will be an obligation to have a health test.
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- franceinfo (@franceinfo) March 26, 2021
This Thursday evening, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany would classify France in a high-risk zone in the face of the Covid-1 pandemic.
This decision should take place this Friday and be announced by the national health watch institute RKI, according to the German daily FAZ.
Until now, only the border department of Moselle has been classified by Germany as a high-risk area.
Preferential treatment for France?
Such a measure entails significant movement restrictions, ranging from the obligation to present a negative test on entry into German territory, to quarantine for 10 days, even to the imposition of strict border controls.
Such controls have been put in place by Germany lately with Poland, and before that with the Czech Republic and the Austrian Tyrol.
VIDEO.
In Moselle, the health puzzle of border workers
On the other hand, Moselle, a border department in the German regions of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate, is subject to a more flexible regime of random checks and antigenic tests for border workers.
Angela Merkel had hinted Thursday evening that France as a whole could benefit from this preferential treatment, and avoid strict border controls, even if its territory is classified as a high incidence zone in its entirety.
