Germany will classify France in a high-risk zone in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which should lead to restrictions on entry into its territory, Angela Merkel said Thursday evening.
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“When looking at the incidence rates it is quite simply a necessity (…) a practically automatic process”, declared the German Chancellor at a press conference in Berlin within the framework of a EU videoconference summit dedicated to the fight against COVID-19.
“This is not a political decision here but we see the evolution of the incidence rate, and when this rate – as is the case here – exceeds the threshold of 200 for a long time, then this leads to a classification in high-risk area, ”she added.
This decision should take place on Friday and be announced by the national health watch institute RKI, according to the daily FAZ.
The incidence rates, which measure the number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 7 days, exceed this threshold of 200 in many French departments. It is even above 600 in Île-de-France, the region which encompasses the capital Paris.
So far, only the border department of Moselle has been classified by Germany as a high-risk area.
Such a measure entails significant restrictions on movement, ranging from the obligation to present a negative test on entry into German territory, to quarantine for 10 days, even to the imposition of strict border controls.
Such controls have been put in place by Germany most recently with Poland and before that with the Czech Republic and the Austrian Tyrol.
On the other hand, for Moselle, the border department of the German regions of Saar and Rhineland-Palatinate, the two countries have agreed on a more flexible system of random checks and antigenic tests for border workers.
And Merkel hinted that France could benefit from this preferential treatment, and avoid strict border controls, even if its territory is classified as a high incidence zone in its entirety.
“There is a whole specific test procedure […] which is in discussion with France, ”she said.
The French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, “is negotiating the easing of the terms (of such a decision) to avoid the border being closed”, we also learned Thursday evening in his entourage in Paris .