Germany has announced that it has lifted travel ban on passengers coming from a few countries, including India, that were hit severely by COVID-19, led by the Delta variant.
Ban lifted
The latest changes in the travel advisory come into effect starting from today. Walter J Lindner, German ambassador to India tweeted:
Promised to work hard on easing travel restrictions for travellers from India and update you immediately. Germany is removing the entry ban and easing travel rules for five countries where the Delta variant is widespread, including India.
According to the latest and revised guidelines, travellers from India who are fully vaccinated are exempted from quarantine. However, they are required to show a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test report before boarding a flight.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said India, Nepal, Russia, Portugal and the United Kingdom, currently listed as so-called virus variant countries, would be reclassified from Wednesday as ‘high-incidence areas’.
India saw an explosion in daily COVID-19 cases as it battled the second COVID-19 wave in April-May. Following the surge, Germany banned entry for travellers from India under preventive measures.
India was classified as a virus variant area at the end of April, followed by Nepal and the UK in May. The European Union country Portugal, as well as Russia, were added to the list on 29th June 2021.
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The changes to the travel rules come as the fall academic session is set to commence in Germany and many Indian students are pursuing their education there. However, due to the major backlog in visa application, it is likely that the process may take longer than before.
Further commenting on restarting visa services, Lindner said:
Due to ongoing Covid repercussions and precaution measures, the restart of our visa services will be gradual, so we ask for your patience and understanding as we cannot process all applications immediately.
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