The situation was getting out of control, with the Czech Republic facing Europe’s biggest surge in new coronavirus infections per capita. Although the country has just imposed a three-week partial lockdown shutting schools, bars and clubs, the Health Minister acknowledged that Czech Republic will see a continued spike of COVID-19 cases over the next ten to 14 days. Not good!
As explain in Back to normal?, I was dreading border closures. This time, however, the risk of not being able to join my to-be-growing family – in time – was not tolerable given the recent turn of events (see When misfortune strikes, again!). Again, even though Germany wants to avoid border closure from happening, the alarming situation in Czech Republic could (have) change(d) their entry ban policy.
Some argues indeed that travel restrictions have been crucial in slowing the spread of the coronavirus, while others are convinced that the spread of the virus cannot be curbed by border closures. Apparently1, a new study showed that during the first wave, mandatory quarantines for incoming travelers were more effective than entry bans
2. Fortunately, this is the current policy adopted by Germany!
Here is my current situation (at the time of this writing). I was able to cross the border (relief #1) and I am now in quarantine, awaiting for the results of my test. I hope that it will be negative! Otherwise… I don’t even want to think about the opposite, dreadful scenario. Anyway, by the time this (scheduled) post will be published, I should be a dad!
1 Unfortunately, I had absolutely no time to read the 92-page pdf that you can find in the SciTechDaily’s article2. ^
2 Mike O’Neill (2020) Closing Borders and Stopping the COVID-19 Virus: WHO & EU Were “Fatally Mistaken”. SciTechDaily. ^