The German public health institute on Friday
confirmed they were listing Spain and the Netherlands under a list of countries
marked as high-risk for COVID-19, triggering new restrictions for unvaccinated
travellers. The new restrictions, announced by the Robert Koch Institute, will
come into effect from Tuesday.

The move comes as Germany tries to curb a
fresh surge in cases, fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant of the
coronavirus, with Europe’s biggest economy imposing restrictions at the peak of the summer tourism season.

In a statement, the institute also said
that Georgia was being removed from the list of high-incidence countries, defined
as those where new infection rates were higher than 200 per 100,000 people in
the last seven days, AFP reported.

People arriving from high-incidence
countries are required quarantine for 10 days, which can be reduced to five
days if the person tests negative for the coronavirus. Fully vaccinated people
or those who have recently recovered from the infection will not need to
quarantine.

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The surge in cases in Germany has added thousands
of fresh infections across the country over recent weeks, although it is
still doing better than some of its neighbours. On Friday, the country reported
2,089 new cases and 34 deaths, bringing its seven-day positivity rate to 13.2%.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday
said she was worried about the country’s “exponential growth: in COVID-19 cases
and urged citizens to get vaccinated. As of Thursday, 60.4% of German nationals
had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 48% fully vaccinated.

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“The infection figures are rising again and
with a clear and worrying dynamic,” she said at a press conference in Berlin. “We
are seeing exponential growth,” she said, adding “every vaccination… is a
small step towards a return to normality”.

She also said she expected cases to double
in the next two weeks, adding that with a rising incidence rate, additional
measures may need to be introduced.