ANGELA Merkel has today told Germans not to take holidays abroad at all this year.
The Chancellor made the declaration as Germany faces a third wave of Covid.
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She said: "Overall, I am not hiding the fact that we are actually giving the travel advice that you should not travel this year."
It comes as the EU threatens to block AstraZeneca jabs from coming to Britain in order to stock up on its own supplies.
Holidays abroad from Britain will be banned until July, with the risk of a £5,000 fine for anyone trying to leave the country.
Under new Covid laws people will be officially banned from leaving without a reasonable excuse as Europe battles a third wave of the killer bug.
Meanwhile, new lockdown restrictions will be introduced in Germany from the beginning of April, as Chancellor Angela Merkel declared the country was in a "new pandemic".
She blamed an "exponential" rise in coronavirus cases as the reason for the restrictions, saying the Kent Covid strain had caused the increase.
She said: "Essentially, we have a new virus… it is much deadlier, much more infectious and infectious for much longer.
"The situation is serious. Case numbers are rising exponentially and intensive care beds are filling up again."
Germany had been easing restrictions until now, reopening schools in late February and allowing hairdressers to open in March.
Mrs Merkel had warned earlier that restrictions would increase if Germany's infection rate went above 100.
The infection rate was 104 on Sunday and rose to 107 yesterday.
LOCKDOWN RULES
Public gatherings will be banned in Germany from April 1 to 5, while most shops will be closed from April 1 until April 3.
All travellers to Germany will have to be tested for Covid before boarding a flight.
Overnight curfews could be imposed for the first time across the country in regions where the seven-day incidence rate surpasses 100 per 100,000 people.
Europe's third wave of Covid infections is gathering pace as its vaccine roll-out has seen just eight per cent of its population given at least one dose.
Meanwhile, the UK, which is to begin lifting its lockdown in the coming weeks amid falling cases, has given at least one dose to 50 per cent of adults.
That has led the EU to threaten to block AstraZeneca's jabs from coming to Britain in order to shore up its supplies.
Britain has warned the EU that it would have "no choice" but to block vaccine ingredient exports to the continent if the EU triggers a full blown jab ban.
One senior member of the government told The Sun today âpolitically and morally it's a no brainerâ adding that âthe British public would not put upâ with anything else.
Meanwhile, most people in the biggest European Union member states â including Germany, France, Spain and Italy â now view AstraZeneca's vaccine as unsafe, a poll revealed.
This is largely thanks to the EU countriesâ knee-jerk ban after dozens of isolated cases of blood clots and brain haemorrhages.
JAB SHAMBLES
Covid cases and deaths in Europe are surging largely thanks to the EU's shambolic jab program, which is now made worse by leaders raising doubts about the safety of the AstraZeneca jab.
Startling images show empty vaccination centres as people shun the Oxford vaccination.
Now desperate EU bureaucrats are trying to block AstraZeneca vaccine exports to Britain.
But new YouGov poll results found that the majority of people in France, Germany, Spain and Italy viewed the vaccine as unsafe after it was bad-mouthed by European leaders.Â
The figure in France for those who thought negatively of the jab was 61 per cent, compared to 55 per cent in Germany.Â
More than half the Spanish â 52 per cent â thought the jab was unsafe, while the figure for the Italians was 43 per cent.
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