France, including all French overseas departments, are now considered “at particularly high risk of infection due to a particularly high number of cases”, Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said. Slovakia and the Czech Republic were meanwhile downgraded from the highest alert red list of “virus variants regions” to “high risk” areas. “While we see such a high incidence it is simply a necessity… a practically automatic process,” Chancellor Merkel told a press conference in Berlin Thursday as part of an EU summit focused on the fight against Covid-19. Up until now, only France’s border area of Moselle had been classified by Germany as a high-risk zone. But Merkel hinted Thursday that France could enjoy special treatment and avoid strict border controls, despite being classified as a high-risk area.

Source: The Local March 26, 2021 06:11 UTC