BORDER CONTROLS: France could be classified by its German neighbor as an area with high incidence of the coronavirus
- What if the rules for crossing the German border became even more complicated? The fear is real in Alsace because the Robert-Koch Institut, the health watch body, could quickly classify France as a high incidence zone.
- For the moment, cross-border workers benefit from a rule, the 24-hour rule, which allows them to move easily between the two countries. But it could therefore jump …
- “We do not yet know what concrete measures will be taken with the Länder such as Baden-Württemberg,” we explain for the moment to the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict. The cross-border community is also waiting for answers …
A working tram between Strasbourg and Kehl, generally fluid traffic and some random police checks…. The current situation on the Franco-German border has nothing to do with that of last spring. It is always possible to cross it, all the more easily for Alsatians and Mosellans who live less than 30 km from Baden-Württemberg, the Saar or Rhineland-Palatinate.
Unlike their compatriots, they do not need to present a negative PCR test within 72 hours and submit to ten days of quarantine. The only condition for the “privileged”: to stay less than 24 hours across the Rhine and to go there for an overriding reason (work, visit to a sick relative, medical appointment). In short, there is no longer any question of changing the country to shop.
What if this whole device jumps in the next few hours? This could be the case if the Robert-Koch Institute (RKI), the German health watch organisation, moves France from a risk zone to a high incidence zone. A probable decision because the incidence rate in France is higher there (approximately 215 positive cases for coronavirus Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants) than the threshold retained by the RKI (200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) for such a classification.
Concern for cross-border workers
“We do not yet know what concrete measures will be taken with the Länder such as Baden-Württemberg”, we explained this Thursday morning to the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict. The cross-border community has been worried since Tuesday about a possible tightening of entry conditions into Germany.
“With the current 24-hour regulation, we had found a good basis, compatible with the pandemic that responds to the daily realities of our border region. To abolish it now means to take a step back, ”writes its chairman Frank Scherer. “We have no proof that border traffic is a particular factor in the pandemic,” he adds in a press release co-signed with the mayor of Strasbourg Jeanne Barseghian.
