Munich (dpa) – After the start of the strict entry restrictions on the borders with the Czech Republic and Austria, the focus is primarily on the economy at the beginning of the week. Commuters with important tasks in systemically relevant industries are now allowed to travel to Germany, as the federal government and the Free State announced on Sunday. “We take a pragmatic approach wherever possible,” emphasized Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU). The auto industry still fears that some plants could come to a standstill on Monday.
Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) rejected criticism of the measures during a visit to Schirnding on the Czech border on Sunday. The controls did not mean the end of a free Europe, as some said. “What a nonsense.” He is convinced that Europe will be strengthened if it succeeds in preventing a new corona wave.
The Czech Republic imposed another emergency in the evening because of the dramatically high number of corona infections. The minority government under Prime Minister Andrej Babis announced that it was valid for 14 days from Monday. It is responding to a request made by representatives of all 14 administrative regions including the capital Prague.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been more than one million confirmed corona infections and 18,143 deaths in the country with a good ten million inhabitants. According to the latest figures from the EU health agency ECDC, there were around 915 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the Czech Republic within 14 days; this corresponds to a good five times the German value (177).
The aim of the border controls is to curb the introduction of more contagious variants of the coronavirus across the border. Both in the Czech Republic and in the Austrian state of Tyrol, these variants are much more common than in Germany. Therefore, only Germans and foreigners with a residence and residence permit in Germany are currently allowed to enter from the affected areas. There were initially exceptions for doctors, nurses and geriatric nurses, truck drivers and seasonal agricultural workers.
In future, however, commuters should also be allowed to enter the country if they are needed to maintain the functionality of their businesses in systemically relevant industries. You must have your employment contract with you up to and including Tuesday. According to this, the states of Bavaria and Saxony are said to have defined companies as systemically relevant and issued individual certificates that should be presented at the border.
However, a prerequisite for the entry of employees is a negative test that is no more than 48 hours old, and they must also register digitally before entering the country.
Many companies feared that they would not be able to produce as usual on Monday. According to the latest figures from the Federal Employment Agency (BA), 22,000 Czechs and 9,600 Austrians work in Bavaria alone, many of them in the manufacturing sector.
Despite the relief, the auto industry sees problems – mainly because truck drivers also have to submit a current corona test. This test requirement could not be implemented at such short notice, explained the industry association VDA. Because the measures would have come at such short notice, the plants would not have been able to stock up any supplier components. Automobile production will therefore largely come to a standstill from Monday noon. “The plants in Ingolstadt, Regensburg, Dingolfing, Zwickau and Leipzig are the first to be affected.”
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the mutated viruses will gradually spread in Germany as well, but this should be slowed down.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210215-99-442875 / 2
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