“To protect the population from virus mutations – that’s why the federal government decided yesterday to declare the Czech Republic, Tyrol and Slovakia as variant areas of the coronavirus,” Spahn told a news conference on Friday.
“This means that there will be a transport ban – and without exception, tests must be done before entering Germany – and there is a quarantine obligation.”
Coronavirus cases have declined in Germany recently, despite new, more contagious variants. On Friday, the country registered 9,860 new infections – a decrease of 3,048 cases from the same day last week. Austria and the Czech Republic did not record similar falls in the cases.
In an attempt to contain the spread of the variant, local authorities deployed 1,200 police and soldiers. From Friday at midnight and lasting 10 days, they will be dispatched to the Tyrol border checkpoints to ensure that anyone attempting to leave the province has a negative coronavirus test in no more than 48 hours. , Tyrol police spokesman Stefan Eder told CNN.
Children, cargo traffic and travelers in transit through Tyrol are exempt from the rule.
Meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, parliament refused to extend the state of emergency on Thursday. As a result, many of the country’s coronavirus restrictions are expected to be lifted automatically on Sunday, when the current state of emergency expires, despite the fact that the virus continues to spread rapidly across the country.
Czech Health Minister Jan Blatny warned that any relaxation of restrictions at this time would lead to the risk of the capacity of the health system being depleted. This is already happening in some hospitals in the Karlovarsky region, further west of the country.
The decision was the result of a deep political dispute between the minority government, led by populist Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, and the opposition, which accused Babiš of not doing enough to contain the virus.
Among others, the opposition argued that the lack of financial support from the government for individuals and companies affected by the pandemic means that people are not following the rules and are skipping quarantines because they cannot risk losing their income.
When Babiš refused to accept his proposals, the opposition voted against extending the state of emergency. The country is holding major parliamentary elections later this year.
Nadine Schmidt and Claudia Otto reported from Berlin. Ivana Kottasová reported and wrote from London.