In view of the ongoing spread of the corona virus in China, the federal government in Berlin is tightening its travel and safety instructions for the Asian country. "Unnecessary trips to China are currently advised against," the Foreign Office said on Saturday.

The number of infections in China has been rising rapidly for weeks after the government in Beijing lifted its strict zero-Covid policy. "The Chinese health system is overburdened, and adequate care in medical emergencies is also affected," warns the Federal Foreign Office on its website, among other things.

It is not exactly known how many people are infected with the Sars-Cov-2 pathogen every day in China. The figures of the government there are considered embellished. The Covid-19 dashboard at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA) only recorded around 636,000 infections in the past four weeks. According to expert estimates, the actual number is significantly higher: currently 2.5 million new infections – per day. More than 16,000 people die every day as a result of an infection. The numbers are expected to continue to rise as the virus hit a largely unimmunized population in the country. The reasons for this include the low vaccination rate and the fact that there has been little prevalence to date.

Against this background, the EU states decided this week that people arriving from China must be tested for an infection from Monday. According to the Robert Koch Institute, with the exception of Hong Kong, the entire People's Republic is then considered a "virus variant area in which a worrying virus variant threatens to appear".

Sources: Federal Foreign Office, Johns Hopkins University, Robert Koch Institute, DPA news agency