well germany has introduced new tougher
restrictions for travelers arriving from
countries designated
as high risk due to covid19 border
police stepped up controls at german
airports for passengers from
around 30 countries designated as high
risk or with
high numbers of virus variants all
travelers now need to show a negative
coronavirus test taken
not more than 48 hours before arriving
in germany well germany's neighbour the
czech republic is
on the high risk list the new rules will
affect
thousands of people who cross the border
every day to work in germany
big cues built up once the new
regulations came into force
if it goes on like this i think i'll
quit my job in germany because i don't
need this
it's probably not worth it anymore you
can't do this all the time
tests three or four times a week waiting
here for two hours
it's not possible
they will not be able to think about
anything else the quality of their work
will come
second
to cross the border with a test on
monday morning i'd have to do it before
the start of working hours
it's not a problem for me but i
understand that an employee in a factory
for example will have a problem because
it means they would be at least
one or two hours late for work on monday
morning
well another country on germany's high
risk list is portugal
voters there are going to the polls to
elect a new president today
despite a deepening coronavirus crisis
in the country
incumbent marcelo rebelo de souza is
regarded
as the clear front runner for the post
which is largely
ceremonial election organizers for their
part have increased the number of
polling stations and allowed for early
voting to avoid
overcrowding at the ballot box portugal
is battling the worst coronavirus
infection rate
in the world the seven day incidence
rate is 785 that's more than double
that of the uk and in the us and also
seven times that of germany's
my correspondent young philip schultz
joins us now from lisbon young philip
why are the numbers so high now in
portugal what went wrong
it's apparently mainly due to the new
variant of the
corona virus coming from the united
kingdom at least in the beginning
the portuguese government was quite slow
in reacting to the new challenge even
though we know by now that it's more
contagious and
probably even more deadly than older
forms of
the virus so this is the main reason
why the the infection numbers are so
high here at the moment
given what we know that it's more deadly
and more infectious and the infection
rate is running out of control given
that situation
why have the authorities deemed
in-person voting necessary
rather than mailing well that's a
question that a lot of portuguese
ask themselves at the moment there are
surveys
showing that two-thirds of all
portuguese would have preferred a
different form of election
or a postponement of the elections but
to be fair
there was the chance of early voting and
postal
voting and there were even volunteers
going from door to door
to make sure that the most vulnerable
groups
can cast their ballot but this applies
to
probably only 200 250 000 uh portuguese
and
there are a lot of legal experts that
stress that the constitution doesn't
really
allow bigger changes or even a
postponement
of the procedures of the election so the
government was in a very
difficult situation here
what is the government then doing to get
this situation
under control well concerning the
elections there are a lot of
extra measures in place of course the
usual measures
social distancing everybody has a pen
and doesn't share the pen with anybody
else and of course a lot of
sanitizers everywhere regarding the
situation in the whole country
uh it's basically stricter and stricter
lockdown measures by the day it started
in mid-january with a lockdown
but at first schools remained open and
this was
partially criticized so the government
changed
its mind and also closed the schools at
the very last minute on on friday
so we are really more or less in a
complete lockdown here in portugal at
the moment
except of course for the possibility
to uh go to the polling stations today
on election day in portugal young philip
schultz thank you so much
okay let's take a look now at some more
pandemic news from other parts of the
world
and israel has expanded its covert 19
vaccination drive to include
16 to 18 year olds with parental
permission the government says it will
allow them to return to school
and take exams israel has the world's
highest
vaccination rate and hopes to reopen its
economy next month
eu council chief charles michelle has
warned
kovin 19 vaccine manufacturers of
possible legal consequences
after they announced delays in
delivering doses vaccine partners
biotech and pfizer blamed
supply chain issues while astrazeneca
said a production glitch would hamper
suppliers to europe
german health authorities have imposed a
quarantine on a berlin hospital after
six employees and 14 patients
tested positive for a highly infectious
variant of the coronavirus
a spokeswoman said that humboldt
hospital will no longer
be allowed to admit new patients and
expects the number of infected
to rise
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