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Germany extended the worldwide travel warning for "non-essential, tourist trips" due to the coronavirus pandemic until June 14, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced on Wednesday.
In many countries there were still restrictions on entry and exit while international air traffic was also grounded. "We must assume that it will take weeks before things return to normal, both here and in other countries," Maas said.
The German Federal Foreign Office also stressed that "severe and drastic restrictions on international air and travel and worldwide entry restrictions, quarantine measures and restrictions on public life in many countries can still be expected."
"Therefore we do not assume that it is responsible to travel worldwide in the next few weeks," said Maas, adding that the holiday season 2020 would be "quite different from what we were used to last time."
For the first time in history, Maas had issued a worldwide travel warning for all German tourists in mid-March. Until now, such warnings had only been issued by Germany if there was an "acute danger to life and limb" and was mostly reserved for war zones such as Afghanistan or Syria.
Initially, the German travel warning had been limited until the end of April and was later extended until early May. "A normal holiday season with full beach bars and full mountain huts will not be possible this summer," Maas had warned earlier.
"In the last few weeks, we have brought back 240,000 Germans from abroad. We will not be able to carry out such an action again this summer," Maas said on Wednesday.
A decision about extending the worldwide travel warning to the German summer holiday season, which will start in mid-June, would be made later, according to Maas.
"We will have to decide what the situation will be like in the summer after talks with the European countries," Maas said, adding that Germany would then decide whether traveling during the summer holidays for Germans would be possible or not. Enditem
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
