The German authorities have announced that, from yesterday, January 4, all countries that appeared on its ‘virus variant areas list’ will be moved to its high-risk list, according to an announcement by Germany’s Robert Koch Institute.

It now lists the following countries as high-risk areas: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the UK. They had all been placed on the red list of ‘virus variant countries’ on November 28, and only German citizens and residents and specific categories of traveller could enter Germany from virus variant areas.

This means travellers from these nine countries will be eligible to enter Germany, subject to the same restrictions as the majority of world travellers. They will still have to register at https://einreiseanmeldung.de/#/ before arriving in Germany and carry the confirmation of registration with them upon entry.

The German Minister of Foreign Affairs has said: “Upon entry into the Federal Republic of Germany, individuals aged six years or older need to be in possession of proof of testing, proof of recovery or proof of vaccination. As a general rule, COVID tests (antigen tests or PCR tests) must not be older than 48 hours at the time of (planned) entry into Germany.”

Travellers from high-risk areas who fail to provide proof from the listed methods above, will face a quarantine of ten days.