Germany to lift travel warnings for high risk areas

The Federal Foreign Office confirmed on Wednesday that travel warnings for countries with a particularly high incidence rate, above 200, as well as for Covid-19 variant areas will however remain in force, Xinhua news agency reported. 

Non-essential tourist travel to countries classified as risk areas is still discouraged. 

Affecting more than 80 countries worldwide, the "improvement of the epidemiological situation in Germany and large parts of Europe, the advancing vaccinations and the introduction of the Digital COVID Certificate (DCC)" made the lifting possible, the Foreign Office noted. 

Till date, more than 30.3 million Germans have been fully vaccinated, bringing the country's inoculation rate to 36.5 per cent, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). 

A single Covid-19 vaccine dose has already been administered to 54.5 per cent of Germany's adult population. 

According to a YouGov survey conducted on behalf of the German Press Agency (dpa) and published on Wednesday, almost half of the respondents considered the lifting of travel warnings to be wrong, while only 38 per cent supported the decision. 

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas defended the lifting of the travel warning. 

"If there are positive developments, there is no reason to maintain restrictions," he said.