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Cancellation of flights to South Africa at London's Heathrow Airport
Photo: Alberto Pezzali / dpa
The federal government is concerned about the spread of the corona variant B.1.1.529.
For fear of the variant, which was first discovered in South Africa, Berlin has therefore significantly expanded the travel restrictions according to SPIEGEL information.
In addition to South Africa itself, the neighboring countries Lesotho, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique are still to be classified as so-called virus variant areas.
That was decided in the afternoon during a crisis switch of several ministries.
PCR tests and quarantine
This means that strict rules apply to all travelers who have stayed in the respective countries in the past ten days and want to enter Germany.
Airlines are only allowed to transport German citizens directly to Germany.
These must also have a fresh PCR test and be in a quarantine in Germany for 14 days, which must not be shortened.
The rule already applies to South Africa and should be implemented immediately by the airlines.
This is especially true for direct flights from Johannesburg and Namibia.
South Africa and Namibia are very popular with German holidaymakers.
The variant B.1.1.529 was initially detected in southern Africa.
It spread very quickly in the South African province of Gauteng, which also includes Johannesburg.
So far there has been talk of around a hundred sequencing of the variant.
B.1.1.529 was also found in Botswana, and they also carried travelers to Hong Kong and Israel.
Belgium reported the first documented case in Europe.
"We are very concerned," said the President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, in Berlin.
The new variant carries a lot of mutations.
The extent to which the number of new corona infections, which are rising sharply in some South African provinces, is really related to the virus type, has yet to be investigated.
The Green health politician Janosch Dahmen told the "Rheinische Post", according to all previous knowledge, this mutation was "really big concern".
Further analyzes are still pending - "but we have to be prepared for a new type of mutation which, beyond the delta variant, could be very dangerous for us."
mrc / mgb / AFP