There are no more risk areas

63 countries and overseas territories were recently on the list of high-risk areas from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). But now it is empty: on March 3rd at midnight it was dropped Risk status for all countries in the world. This means that there are hardly any restrictions for travelers – only the 3G rule is still in force upon entry, according to which travelers must either be fully vaccinated, recovered or tested against the corona virus. However, unvaccinated adults and children no longer have to be quarantined for at least five days.

The federal states had already called for an amendment to the risk areas: Due to the spread of the omicron variant, the incidences are no longer meaningful. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) then announced in an interview that in future only areas in which a new virus variant prevails would be identified as risk areas.

Since March 3rd there are no longer any high-risk areas

“The classification as a high-risk area only applies to areas in which there is a high incidence in relation to the spread of variants with higher virulence than the omicron variant, i.e. pathogenic properties. There is therefore no longer any designation of high-risk areas due to the spread of the omicron variant,” says the RKI website. No country is currently designated as a virus variant area, since omicron is the predominant variant worldwide. The RKI also points out that the risk status can also change at short notice in the future.

Recently, there had been much criticism of the designation of the risk areas. Travel warnings were issued for countries that had significantly lower case numbers than Germany. In addition, families with children who cannot yet be vaccinated were disadvantaged – they had no chance of avoiding quarantine. Experts also pointed out that the status as a risk area is no longer a deterrent and that this does not stop those who are willing to travel – which was originally the idea of ​​classifying countries according to their risk status.

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