Germany Blocks Air Routes from South Africa Due to 'Emergence of New Variant'... Entry and Exit Restrictions Imposed

[Asia Economy Reporter Joselgina] Germany has declared South Africa, where a new variant of the virus has emerged, as a COVID-19 variant area and will impose entry and exit restrictions starting from the night of the 26th (local time).

Major foreign media reported this citing a German Health Ministry official. Accordingly, travel to South Africa will be banned from that night, and flights from South Africa to Germany will be allowed only for German nationals. In addition, even if vaccinated, a mandatory 14-day quarantine period will be required after returning.

This is interpreted as a more proactive initial response due to concerns that the new COVID-19 variant ‘Nu (B.1.1.529)’ may be more powerful than the Delta variant. Earlier, the UK Health Security Agency stated, “The new variant has a spike protein dramatically different from the existing virus, and the number of mutations is twice that of the Delta variant.”

In particular, concerns are increasing as analyses suggest that the new variant can neutralize both natural immunity acquired from previous infections and immune responses generated by existing vaccines.

Currently, Europe has surpassed 1.5 million cumulative deaths due to COVID-19, and countries are introducing or considering strong quarantine measures such as lockdowns. Germany also surpassed 100,000 cumulative COVID-19 deaths as of the previous day. Daily new confirmed cases also exceeded 70,000 for the first time.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.