Germany names Israel, Turkey, US as high-risk COVID-19 areas

BERLIN: The German government has upgraded Israel, Turkey and the United States to having a high COVID-19 risk, triggering a minimum five-day quarantine requirement for those who are unvaccinated, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases said on Friday (Aug 13).

Montenegro and Vietnam are also affected by the upgrade, while Portugal has been downgraded and is no longer a high-risk area, with the exception of Lisbon and the Algarve, RKI said.

The upgrade will take effect on Sunday, except in the case of Turkey, when it will come into force on Tuesday night given the large number of people in Germany with a Turkish background.

Travellers from high-risk countries must go into quarantine for ten days unless they can show proof of vaccination or recovery from COVID-19. Self-isolation can be ended after five days at the earliest with a negative test.