These include areas in neighbouring Denmark, the Czech Republic, France, Austria and the Netherlands. This is shown in the list updated on Wednesday evening by the Robert Koch Institute. In total, 14 out of 27 EU Member States have now been fully or partially designated as Corona risk areas again.

New regions were added on Wednesday in Denmark, Portugal, Ireland and Slovenia. In addition, further regions in France, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Croatia, Romania, Austria and Hungary were designated as risk areas. The Federal Foreign Office is expected to issue a travel warning for all these areas in the course of the evening.

Travellers returning from risk areas must be tested for Corona 48 hours before or after entry. The travel warning is not a ban, but is intended to have a significant deterrent effect. However, it also has a positive side for consumers: it allows travellers to cancel bookings free of charge.

Following the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, the German Federal Foreign Office issued the first worldwide travel warning for tourist travel on March 17. For more than 30 European countries it was initially lifted again in mid-June. After only a few weeks, however, the travel warnings for the first countries had to be reactivated due to rising infection figures. More than half of the EU countries are now affected. However, Spain remains the only Member State that has been fully declared a risk area.

Classification usually takes place when the number of new Corona infections exceeds the level of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days. The travel warning may also be based on other reasons, such as entry restrictions or lack of hygiene measures.

Original text: dpa. Translation: Mareike Graepel