Germany closes the borders to the British to preserve its progress against the pandemic

Germany closes its borders this Sunday to travelers from the United Kingdom, in what is a new example of the lack of coordination and unity of criteria that exists between European governments on measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and its variants.

Faced with Spain's decision to open the country without restrictions to the British given the need to reactivate tourism, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs has included the United Kingdom in its list of “virus variant area” due to its dominance in that country of strain first identified in India. This classification, which entails significant travel restrictions, is part of the Robert Koch Institute, responsible in Germany for the control of infectious diseases.

“If we want to keep the downward pressure on infections, we must prevent the most infectious variant of the virus from jeopardizing the progress made. It's a blow to the UK, but a necessary one to prevent the spread of a particularly infectious variant in Germany.. Only when vaccination has reached the desired level will we be able to stop this danger,” a spokesman for the German Ministry of Health explained.

The measure enters into force this Sunday and only contemplates as an exception to the prohibition of entry into the country for German citizens or residents in Germany.. Both of them must keep a two-week quarantine, even if the PCR tests that they must show when boarding a plane or at the borders if they travel by train or bus are negative.

The United Kingdom is the first country in Europe to be classified as a “virus variant zone”, the most dangerous in the Robert Koch classification. Until now, that category applied to 11 countries in Asia, Africa and South America.

The variant of Covid-19 first identified in India, also known as B.1.617.2, is considered by German scientists to be the most contagious of the strains detected and responsible for the devastating rise in cases in India.

In the United Kingdom, the European country that is most connected to India due to its colonial past, has registered more than 3,400 cases of this variant since May 19.. The largest number of cases have been detected in the cities of Blackburn and Bolton, in central England and in a district of west London. Blackburn and Bolton have also reported a slight increase in hospitalizations due to the Indian strain, an announcement that the British Minister of Health, Matt Hancock, has qualified by ensuring that most of these people had not received the vaccine.

India is listed by the British health authorities as a risk country, a belated classification that, in practice, means practically nothing. Unlike direct flights with other risk countries such as Brazil and South Africa, which have been banned, air traffic with India has hardly been affected.. According to British media, flights from India not only continue to arrive daily, but security measures are not respected in the huge queues that form at passport control posts.

The battle against Covid-19 continues to be a priority for the German authorities and especially against the variants that, like the one identified in India, are considered especially aggressive and have a lower response to vaccines, although there is no unanimity among the experts on this last aspect. virologists. The manufacturers of the vaccines approved in the European Union, including AstraZeneca, the most widely used in the United Kingdom, have shown them to be effective.

The Robert Koch Institute and Health Minister Jens Spahn, however, are not willing to take risks, especially when the efforts made throughout this time to control the pandemic are beginning to show results.

After months of severe social and economic restrictions, some 3.7 million people infected and 87,000 deaths from Covid, Germany now has a cumulative incidence of 66.8 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, well below the 100 required by the new Infection Protection Act to put the emergency brake on normalcy.