Reuters - Should France become a coronavirus variant area Germany would introduce border controls, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in Berlin on Tuesday (March 30), adding "but that is currently not the situation."
Seehofer also said he would not extend controls on the border with Austria's Tyrol region where "the infection situation has significantly improved."
"The infection situation in the Czech Republic makes it no longer a variant area but overall, it is not yet stable. I will extend the stationary border controls by 14 days," Seehofer told reporters.
Germany reinstated border controls with the Czech Republic and Tyrol on Feb. 14, at the time citing the number of new coronavirus infections and more virus variant cases.
Asked whether Germany could introduce a general ban on its residents to leave the country, Seehofer said his ministry came to the conclusion that this "is legally not possible."
Germany warned its citizens last Friday not to make unnecessary trips to neighbouring France, Austria, Denmark and the Czech Republic because of rising COVID-19 infection rates.
The move also means people coming into Germany from those countries will have to provide a negative test not older than 48 hours at the border.
They will then have to go into a ten-day quarantine which can be shortened after a second negative test after five days, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.
