Germany removes Turkey from list of high risk COVID countries

New COVID-19 cases continue to drop in Turkey. Yesterday, 6126 cases were registered on a population of 85 million. Also, over 30 million vaccines have now been completed as of Friday.

This leads to more countries lifting restrictions. Yesterday, Germany joined the list of countries that label Turkey as a normal risk country. Of course, this provides a further positive outlook for other EU countries to follow soon.

I stayed in Turkey during the past weeks and life has normalized, with safe tourism measures in place in all public places. I never felt unsafe as a result.

"Turkey is now a normal risk country"

Robert Koch Institute (RKI) - 4 June 2021

Germany's top disease control agency on Friday removed Turkey from the list of high-risk COVID-19 countries. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Turkey is now merely a normal risk country and as a result, there is no longer a need for a five- to 10-day quarantine obligation.

Turkey which was placed on the high-risk list of the RKI in April has so far administered over 29.78 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it kicked off a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to official Turkish figures released on Thursday.

Top Turkish and German tourism and economic officials had met in Berlin last month to discuss ways to promote safe travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Turkey has long been a top destination for German holidaymakers, but the number of German tourists visiting the country fell sharply last year due to virus-related travel restrictions and quarantine measures.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said last month they were discussing various steps with Ankara to facilitate travel in a responsible manner.

As promised, we'll give you a more detailed update about our Sailing Chef 2021 maiden sail in an upcoming blog, but we felt this breaking news had priority :).

Have a great Sunday!

Your Sailing Chef team