Germany to send oxygen and medical aid to India; Greece to lift quarantine restrictions for Australia, Russia and others; India reports over 350,000 new cases for first time
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Germany will send oxygen and medical aid to India in the coming days to help it tackle its Covid crisis, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday.
India is suffering from a spike in coronavirus infections, with the number of cases surging by 349,691 in the past 24 hours, the fourth straight day of record peaks, Reuters reports.
Hospitals are turning away patients after running out of medical oxygen.
“The second wave is currently rolling over India with unprecedented power. It was right that we acted quickly to stop the entry of the new mutation in Germany,” Maas told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
Germany has classified India as a coronavirus high incidence area and also put the country on a separate warning list for coronavirus variants.
From Monday onwards, Germans arriving from India will only be allowed to enter the country with a negative test result and will then have to begin a 14-day quarantine. Foreign travellers coming from India will no longer be allowed to enter Germany.
Mass said Germany would do its utmost to help India overcome the emergency.
A German defence ministry spokeswoman said the foreign ministry had asked the military to look into providing a mobile oxygen production facility as well as support to transport other emergency and relief goods to India.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday expressed her “sympathy over the terrible suffering” that the pandemic had brought to India.
“Germany stands in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a mission of support,” Merkel said in a statement.
The European Commission has also said it aims to send oxygen and medicines to India after receiving a request from Delhi. Britain and the United States are also sending assistance including medical equipment.
Greece will lift quarantine restrictions on coronavirus-free visitors from more countries including Australia and Russia from Monday as it extends exemptions ahead of formally opening up to tourists on May 15, the transport ministry said on Sunday.
Reuters: The change, which came as Greece crossed the threshold of 10,000 deaths from Covid-19, follows a move this month to lift restrictions on visitors from EU countries, the United States and Britain, among other countries.
Visitors from these countries are allowed into Greece without spending a week in quarantine as long as they are vaccinated or test negative for the coronavirus.
As well as Australia and Russia, Greece will lift restrictions on visitors from New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, Rwanda and Singapore, the ministry said in a statement. Visitors from Serbia, Israel and the United Arab Emirates are also exempt from quarantine requirements following the earlier changes affecting the EU and other countries.
Greece, which emerged from the first wave of the pandemic last year in much better shape than many other countries in Europe, has been hit badly in recent months, with rising numbers of patients putting hospitals under severe strain in many areas.
However, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last week the pandemic was showing signs of stabilising and he confirmed plans for a 15 May opening of the vital tourism sector, which accounts for a fifth of economic output.
Despite a stuttering start to vaccinations in the European Union, the Greek government says it is better placed this summer than last year thanks to widespread testing, quarantine hotels and vaccination drives on small islands and among tourism workers.
Authorities reported 1,400 new cases and 57 deaths on Sunday. The pandemic has now caused a total of 333,129 infections in Greece and 10,007 deaths.
