GERMANY will lift its Covid-19 travel warnings for high-risk areas with an infection rate above 50 cases per 100 000 people, on Thursday.
The Federal Foreign Office confirmed on Wednesday that travel warnings for countries with a high-incidence rate, above 200, as well as for Covid-19 variant areas will remain in force, Xinhua news agency reported.
Non-essential tourist travel to countries classified as risk areas is discouraged.
Affecting more than 80 countries worldwide, the "improvement of the epidemiological situation in Germany and large parts of Europe, the advancing vaccinations and the introduction of the Digital Covid Certificate" made the lifting possible, the Foreign Office noted.
Till date, more than 30.3 million Germans have been fully vaccinated, bringing the country's inoculation rate to 36.5%, according to the Robert Koch Institute.
A single Covid-19 vaccine dose has been administered to 54.5%of Germany's adult population.
According to a YouGov survey, conducted on behalf of the German Press Agency (dpa) and published on Wednesday, almost half the respondents considered the lifting of travel warnings to be wrong, while only 38% supported the decision.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas defended the lifting of the travel warning.
"If there are positive developments, there is no reason to maintain restrictions," he said.
Meanwhile, non-vaccinated Britons who are travelling to Portugal need to go through mandatory quarantine for two weeks, according to an order published by the Portuguese government, as reported by Euronews.travel. | IANS