Germany has updated its list of high risk areas on 1 March 2022 and announced that from 3 March 2022, no area in the world will be considered a high risk area. This means that the update on the list of high risk areas consisted of removing all territories from it.
This is because the Omicron variant, which is the dominant variant right now, causes much less severe disease, especially when a considerable number of people in the world have been at least double vaccinated.
Therefore, the German authorities believe they shouldn’t classify any countries as “high risk areas” due to their Omicron incidence. They will be alert, though, in case there is a new COVID-19 variant that is more harmful than Omicron.
If this happens, the list of high risk areas will most likely be renewed by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Foreign Office, and the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community —the government agencies that have been in charge of making decisions over the list until now.
In the meanwhile, all people above 12 years old must be fully vaccinated or have a valid COVID-19 recovery certificate in order to enter the German territory. Travelers who are not fully vaccinated and/or haven’t recovered from a previous COVID-19 infection must take a test to show that they are not currently infected with the virus. But the travel quarantine requirement upon entry has been eliminated.
Last week, almost 40 territories had been eliminated from the list of high risk areas. Now, the German citizens and residents keep waiting for the gradual removal of most of the COVID-19 preventive measures, which are meant to fall by 20 March 2022.
On March 4th, 2022, the vaccination requirement for eating in a restaurant has been terminated, meaning that even unvaccinated people can attend eating and drinking venues in Germany now. However, only recovered people or fully vaccinated people with a negative test and/or a third dose of an approved vaccine will be allowed in nightclubs.
Moreover, the number of maximum (vaccinated) attendants to massive events has been increased to 6,000 at a maximum capacity of 60% for indoor events and 25,000 people at a maximum capacity of 75% for outdoor events.
In Germany, vaccination rates reported to the Robert Kort Institute (RKI) under the vaccination rate monitoring system indicate that 75.5% of the German population is double vaccinated (what is considered a “basic immunization”), and at least 57.3% of the German population received a booster shot. Still, a representative survey conducted in February by the polling institute Insa for the newspaper “Bild am Sonntag” showed that 52% of the surveyed German citizens stated that they would continue to wear a face mask even if they are not obliged to.
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