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Covid-19 update - traveling to germany.

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Are you planning to travel to Germany this summer? Before you go, please read the important information update on vaccination, quarantine and everything COVID-related to your travel.

Until 30.09.2022 , two vaccinations according to the EU -wide vaccination scheme are sufficient to enter Germany. The date of vaccination is irrelevant for Germany.

From 1.10.2022 , three vaccinations or two vaccinations and a negative PCR test or two vaccinations and a convalescent certificate are required, which must not be fresher than 28 days and not older than 90 days. There are still numerous exceptions for other conceivable case constellations, including for non-vaccinated persons, who must then remain in quarantine.

Please read all detailed information here: https://canada.diplo.de/ca-en/consular-services/16-coronavirus--covid-19-corona

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Germany Travel Restrictions

Traveller's COVID-19 vaccination status

Travelling from Canada to Germany

Open for vaccinated visitors

COVID-19 testing

Not required

Not required for vaccinated visitors

Restaurants

Not required in public spaces.

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Can I travel to Germany from Canada?

Most visitors from Canada, regardless of vaccination status, can enter Germany.

Can I travel to Germany if I am vaccinated?

Fully vaccinated visitors from Canada can enter Germany without restrictions.

Can I travel to Germany without being vaccinated?

Unvaccinated visitors from Canada can enter Germany without restrictions.

Do I need a COVID test to enter Germany?

Visitors from Canada are not required to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test or antigen result upon entering Germany.

Can I travel to Germany without quarantine?

Travellers from Canada are not required to quarantine.

Do I need to wear a mask in Germany?

Mask usage in Germany is not required in public spaces.

Are the restaurants and bars open in Germany?

Restaurants in Germany are open. Bars in Germany are .

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These rules apply to travellers arriving in germany from risk areas in other countries.

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COVID-19 regulations for travellers entering Germany These rules apply to travellers arriving in Germany from risk areas in other countries

Everyone entering the Federal Republic of Germany from an area designated a risk area is required to provide evidence that they are not infected with the coronavirus within 48 hours of entering Germany. Travellers from particularly affected regions, with high incidences of COVID-19 or where variants of the virus have been identified, will have to provide evidence that they have tested negative before they enter the country. These provisions are laid out in the immigration regulations of the Federal Ministry of Health. 

Monday, 25 January 2021

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Everyone who has been in an area designated as a risk area will have to register, be tested and provide evidence in order to enter the Federal Republic of Germany.

Against a blue background the diagram is headed: New immigration regulations – to stem rising numbers of new cases. Below this is the caption: Entering Germany and the following points: 

• Travellers entering Germany from risk areas must register, be tested within 48 hours and provide evidence
• Travellers entering Germany from high-risk areas* must provide evidence of negative test results before leaving on the return journey and on entry into Germany

*  Areas where mutations of the virus have been identified or where the incidence is particularly high

Photo: Bundesregierung

The immigration regulations aim to minimise the number of cases of COVID-19 imported from high or very high risk areas outside Germany. Everyone who has been in an area designated as a risk area will have to register, be tested and provide evidence of the test results in order to enter the Federal Republic of Germany. The regulations came into effect on 14 January.

A distinction is made between three types of risk areas outside Germany:

• Areas where the Federal Ministry of Heath, in conjunction with the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, has identified a higher risk of infection with a threatening communicable disease
• High-incidence areas , where the incidence is several times higher than that in Germany, but at least 200
• Areas in which particularly infectious variants of the virus are widespread.

All travellers who have been in a risk area will have to fill in an online immigration registration form before they enter Germany, as is already the case. Within 48 hours of entering the country they must have evidence that they were not infected with SARS-CoV-2 at the time they entered the country, and must present this to the relevant authority on request.

Everyone entering Germany from a risk area in which there is a particularly high incidence or where particularly infectious variants of the virus are widespread will have to carry this evidence on their person when they enter the country and present it, on request, to the carrier before they leave, to the relevant authorities on entry into Germany or to officers undertaking any police checks.

The Robert Koch Institute provides an overview of designated risk areas, high incidence areas and areas where variants of the virus have been identified.

Preventing the spread of virus variants as far as possible

"Travel to foreign risk areas is not appropriate in this pandemic situation. Anyone who nevertheless insists on travelling will have to be tested on their return in future. Mutations of the virus are an additional threat to our health. We must prevent them spreading in Germany as far as possible," stressed Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn.

Mandatory quarantine still applies

The common goal of the federal and state governments is to prevent travellers entering Germany becoming new sources of infection in the country. The requirement to self-isolate, i.e. to quarantine, on arrival from risk areas remains in place. Travellers arriving from outside Germany, who have been in an area designated a risk area by the Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior within the last ten days, are required to quarantine immediately on their arrival in Germany for a period of ten days.

Under certain circumstances exceptions to mandatory quarantine can apply. The individual federal states impose mandatory quarantine regulations for all travellers arriving from abroad and also stipulate any exceptions to this rule. Please check the regulations that apply in your federal state.

Another change is that as of 1 March, mobile telephony providers must inform their customers by text message about the immigration and infection control measures in place in Germany.

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Covid-19 information.

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COVID-19: Travel restrictions due to the corona pandemic and quarantine regulations for entry to Germany.

Persons who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 with vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) (or equivalents of these vaccines used in third countries) can enter Germany. This includes persons who wish to enter Germany for the purpose of visits or tourism. Fully vaccinated persons as defined above can apply for visas at the competent mission abroad if required.

However, this does not apply to entry to Germany from countries that are classified as areas of variant of concern. Transportation to Germany from these areas continues to be prohibited.

Only persons who are fully vaccinated with one or different vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) (list of approved vaccines ) or with equivalents of these vaccines used in third countries (list ) can enter Germany. The plan is to extend this to other vaccines with a comparable level of protection as soon as the necessary tests have been completed.

Proof of vaccination

To enter Germany, all travellers must present proof of vaccination that meets the requirements listed under 1., 2. and 3. below in full.

It must be a digital EU COVID certificate or comparable proof of vaccination in digital or physical (paper) form in German, English, French, Italian or Spanish. Photographs of physical proof cannot be accepted as digital proof. Proof in digital form should have been issued digitally by the authorised issuer and transmitted digitally to the entitled holder.

the personal data of the vaccinated person (at least their family name, first name and date of birth or the number of a valid passport or other official photo ID, which is to be presented upon inspection),

date of vaccination, number of vaccinations,

name of vaccine,

name of disease vaccinated against, and

identifiers that indicate the person or institution responsible for administering the vaccination or issuing the certificate, for example an official symbol or the name of the issuer.

Furthermore, the vaccination needs to meet certain requirements as provided for in Section 22 (a) 1 of the Protection against Infection Act for the individual to be considered fully protected.

To be considered fully vaccinated with approved vaccines, the requirements are

a) up until 30 September 2022: two vaccination doses;

b) up until 30 September 2022: one vaccination dose if in addition the individual can provide proof of:

• an antibody test with proven infection with coronavirus prior to the vaccination, followed by administration of vaccination; or
• a positive test by means of a nucleic acid test (for example, PCR) prior to the vaccination dose ; or
• a positive test by means of a nucleic acid test (for example, PCR) taken at least 28 days ago and after first vaccination dose was administered;

c) from 1 October 2022: three vaccination doses ; the last vaccination dose must be administered at least three months after the second one;

d) from 1 October 2022: two vaccination doses if proof can be provided in addition of:

• an antibody test with proven infection with coronavirus prior to the first vaccination dose, followed by administration of two vaccinations; or
• a positive test by means of a nucleic acid test (for example, PCR) prior to the second vaccination ; or
• a positive test by means of a nucleic acid test (for example, PCR) taken at least 28 days ago and after the second vaccination was administered.

Before you travel, please check your vaccination certificate meets the above requirements.

Children under the age of 12 who are not yet vaccinated can enter the country with proof of a negative test result (PCR test or antigen test) when accompanied by at least one fully vaccinated parent. Children under the age of six do not require proof of a negative test result.

Further information is available here .

The latest information on COVID-19 and travel restrictions to the U.S. and Germany can also be found on the Embassy Washington page: Germany.info .

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Germany Travel Restrictions

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Traveling from the United States to Germany

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Not required for vaccinated visitors

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Entry details & exceptions

Ready to travel, find flights to germany, find stays in germany, explore more countries on travel restrictions map, destinations you can travel to now, dominican republic, netherlands, philippines, puerto rico, switzerland, united arab emirates, united kingdom, know when to go.

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Can I travel to Germany from the United States?

Most visitors from the United States, regardless of vaccination status, can enter Germany.

Can I travel to Germany if I am vaccinated?

Fully vaccinated visitors from the United States can enter Germany without restrictions.

Can I travel to Germany without being vaccinated?

Unvaccinated visitors from the United States can enter Germany without restrictions.

Do I need a COVID test to enter Germany?

Visitors from the United States are not required to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test or antigen result upon entering Germany.

Can I travel to Germany without quarantine?

Travelers from the United States are not required to quarantine.

Do I need to wear a mask in Germany?

Mask usage in Germany is not required in public spaces.

Coronavirus related restrictions for travel into the EU

Webpages in this section are no longer being updated. The content may be out-of-date and should be consulted for past reference only.

Following the adoption of Council Recommendation (EU) 2022/2548 of 13 December 2022, no restrictions should be imposed on travels into the EU from another country. 

What if the epidemiological situation worsens?

In case of severe worsening of the epidemiological situation in EU or non-EU countries, Member States should decide in a coordinated manner to reintroduce appropriate requirements for travellers prior to their departure.  

What happens if a new variant is detected?

An urgent, temporary restriction on all travel into the EU from a third country or region can be adopted by Member States

where a variant of concern or interest is detected 

if the epidemiological situation in that country has rapidly deteriorated 

This emergency brake applies to non-EU nationals who have stayed in that non-EU country or region at any time during the 14 days before departure towards the EU. 

Such a restriction should expire after 21 days unless Member States decide to shorten it or extend it for an additional period. If the emergency brake is triggered, EU countries should discuss possible coordinated measures in the Council, in cooperation with the European Commission. 

Restrictions on travel to the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic

As a first response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the EU, a coordinated temporary restriction of non-essential travel to the EU applied from 17 March 2020 until 30 June 2020. In June 2020, following a proposal from the Commission, the Council adopted a recommendation on temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU and the possible lifting of such restrictions. This recommendation was updated several times and eventually replaced in December 2022 by Council Recommendation (EU) 2022/Council Recommendation (EU) 2022/2548 .  

During the period where travel restrictions to the EU were in place, some exemptions were put in place to ensure free movement of citizens, goods and services – with full respect of health and safety measures. 

The following categories of people were exempt from the temporary travel restriction to the EU+ area from third countries

• EU citizens and nationals of Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, as well as their respective family members 
• third-country nationals who are long-term residents under the Long-term Residence Directive, or deriving their right to reside from other EU Directives or national law, or who hold national long-term visas, as well as their respective family members 

The temporary travel restrictions did also not apply to people with an essential function or need, including 

• healthcare professionals, health researchers, and elderly care professionals
• frontier workers 
• seasonal workers in agriculture 
• transport personnel 
• diplomats, staff of international organisations and people invited by international organisations whose physical presence is required for the well-functioning of these organisations, military personnel and humanitarian aid workers and civil protection personnel in the exercise of their functions 
• passengers in transit 
• passengers travelling for imperative family reasons 
• seafarers 
• persons in need of international protection or for other humanitarian reasons 
• third-country nationals travelling for the purpose of study 
• highly qualified third-country workers if their employment is necessary from an economic perspective and the work cannot be postponed or performed abroad.

Disclaimer. The page was last updated in September 2023

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Worldwide caution, update may 10, 2024, information for u.s. citizens in the middle east.

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Germany Travel Advisory

Travel advisory may 1, 2024, germany - level 2: exercise increased caution.

Reissued after periodic review with minor edits

Exercise increased caution in Germany due to  terrorism .

Country Summary:  Terrorist groups keep planning attacks in Germany. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning. They target tourist locations and transportation hubs. They also target markets/shopping malls and local government facilities. They target hotels, clubs, and restaurants. They also attack places of worship, parks, and major sporting and cultural events. They target schools, airports, and other public areas.

Read the  country information page for additional information on travel to Germany.

If you decide to travel to Germany:

• Be aware of your surroundings when traveling to tourist locations and crowded public venues.
• Follow the instructions of local authorities.
• Monitor local media for breaking events and adjust your plans based on new information.
• Enroll in the  Smart Traveler Enrollment Program  ( STEP ) to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.
• Follow the Department of State on  Facebook  and  Twitter . 
• Review the  Country Security Report  for Germany.
• Visit the CDC page for the latest Travel Health Information related to your travel.
• Prepare a contingency plan for emergency situations. Review the  Traveler’s Checklist .

Travel Advisory Levels

Assistance for u.s. citizens, germany map, search for travel advisories, external link.

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COVID-19 international travel advisories

If you plan to visit the U.S., you do not need to be tested or vaccinated for COVID-19. U.S. citizens going abroad, check with the Department of State for travel advisories.

COVID-19 testing and vaccine rules for entering the U.S.

• As of May 12, 2023, noncitizen nonimmigrant visitors to the U.S.  arriving by air  or  arriving by land or sea  no longer need to show proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 
• As of June 12, 2022,  people entering the U.S. no longer need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test . 

U.S. citizens traveling to a country outside the U.S.

Find country-specific COVID-19 travel rules from the Department of State.

See the  CDC's COVID-19 guidance for safer international travel.

LAST UPDATED: December 6, 2023

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Move to T+1 settlement for Government of Canada securities auctions

As of 3 June 2024, all Government of Canada auctions of its treasury bills, bonds and Cash Management Bond Buybacks (CMBB) will be subject to T+1 settlement. This move will follow the Canadian secondary market’s own transition to T+1 settlement, expected to occur on Monday, 27 May 2024.

Treasury bill auctions will continue to occur on alternating Tuesdays, but their settlement dates will now be Wednesday. Bond auctions will likewise settle the following business day after the auction. All settlement details will continue to be announced via Calls for Tender and Quarterly Bond Schedules.

The Bank of Canada and the Government of Canada will monitor the secondary market’s move to T+1 and will proceed if this transition is orderly. Should any serious issues arise during the secondary market’s transition, this may delay the change to T+1 for the Government’s treasury bill, bond and CMBB operations. If such a delay occurs, this will be communicated by a market notice in advance of 3 June.

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The huge solar storm is keeping power grid and satellite operators on edge

Geoff Brumfiel

Willem Marx

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of solar flares early Saturday afternoon. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there have been measurable effects and impacts from the geomagnetic storm. Solar Dynamics Observatory hide caption

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of solar flares early Saturday afternoon. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there have been measurable effects and impacts from the geomagnetic storm.

Planet Earth is getting rocked by the biggest solar storm in decades – and the potential effects have those people in charge of power grids, communications systems and satellites on edge.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there have been measurable effects and impacts from the geomagnetic storm that has been visible as aurora across vast swathes of the Northern Hemisphere. So far though, NOAA has seen no reports of major damage.

The Picture Show

Photos: see the northern lights from rare, solar storm.

There has been some degradation and loss to communication systems that rely on high-frequency radio waves, NOAA told NPR, as well as some preliminary indications of irregularities in power systems.

"Simply put, the power grid operators have been busy since yesterday working to keep proper, regulated current flowing without disruption," said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator for the Boulder, Co.-based Space Weather Prediction Center at NOAA.

NOAA Issues First Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch Since 2005

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"Satellite operators are also busy monitoring spacecraft health due to the S1-S2 storm taking place along with the severe-extreme geomagnetic storm that continues even now," Dahl added, saying some GPS systems have struggled to lock locations and offered incorrect positions.

NOAA's GOES-16 satellite captured a flare erupting occurred around 2 p.m. EDT on May 9, 2024.

As NOAA had warned late Friday, the Earth has been experiencing a G5, or "Extreme," geomagnetic storm . It's the first G5 storm to hit the planet since 2003, when a similar event temporarily knocked out power in part of Sweden and damaged electrical transformers in South Africa.

The NOAA center predicted that this current storm could induce auroras visible as far south as Northern California and Alabama.

Extreme (G5) geomagnetic conditions have been observed! pic.twitter.com/qLsC8GbWus — NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (@NWSSWPC) May 10, 2024

Around the world on social media, posters put up photos of bright auroras visible in Russia , Scandinavia , the United Kingdom and continental Europe . Some reported seeing the aurora as far south as Mallorca, Spain .

The source of the solar storm is a cluster of sunspots on the sun's surface that is 17 times the diameter of the Earth. The spots are filled with tangled magnetic fields that can act as slingshots, throwing huge quantities of charged particles towards our planet. These events, known as coronal mass ejections, become more common during the peak of the Sun's 11-year solar cycle.

A powerful solar storm is bringing northern lights to unusual places

Usually, they miss the Earth, but this time, NOAA says several have headed directly toward our planet, and the agency predicted that several waves of flares will continue to slam into the Earth over the next few days.

While the storm has proven to be large, predicting the effects from such incidents can be difficult, Dahl said.

Shocking problems

The most disruptive solar storm ever recorded came in 1859. Known as the "Carrington Event," it generated shimmering auroras that were visible as far south as Mexico and Hawaii. It also fried telegraph systems throughout Europe and North America.

Stronger activity on the sun could bring more displays of the northern lights in 2024

While this geomagnetic storm will not be as strong, the world has grown more reliant on electronics and electrical systems. Depending on the orientation of the storm's magnetic field, it could induce unexpected electrical currents in long-distance power lines — those currents could cause safety systems to flip, triggering temporary power outages in some areas.

my cat just experienced the aurora borealis, one of the world's most radiant natural phenomena... and she doesn't care pic.twitter.com/Ee74FpWHFm — PJ (@kickthepj) May 10, 2024

The storm is also likely to disrupt the ionosphere, a section of Earth's atmosphere filled with charged particles. Some long-distance radio transmissions use the ionosphere to "bounce" signals around the globe, and those signals will likely be disrupted. The particles may also refract and otherwise scramble signals from the global positioning system, according to Rob Steenburgh, a space scientist with NOAA. Those effects can linger for a few days after the storm.

Like Dahl, Steenburgh said it's unclear just how bad the disruptions will be. While we are more dependent than ever on GPS, there are also more satellites in orbit. Moreover, the anomalies from the storm are constantly shifting through the ionosphere like ripples in a pool. "Outages, with any luck, should not be prolonged," Steenburgh said.

What Causes The Northern Lights? Scientists Finally Know For Sure

The radiation from the storm could have other undesirable effects. At high altitudes, it could damage satellites, while at low altitudes, it's likely to increase atmospheric drag, causing some satellites to sink toward the Earth.

The changes to orbits wreak havoc, warns Tuija Pulkkinen, chair of the department of climate and space sciences at the University of Michigan. Since the last solar maximum, companies such as SpaceX have launched thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit. Those satellites will now see their orbits unexpectedly changed.

"There's a lot of companies that haven't seen these kind of space weather effects before," she says.

The International Space Station lies within Earth's magnetosphere, so its astronauts should be mostly protected, Steenburgh says.

In a statement, NASA said that astronauts would not take additional measures to protect themselves. "NASA completed a thorough analysis of recent space weather activity and determined it posed no risk to the crew aboard the International Space Station and no additional precautionary measures are needed," the agency said late Friday.

People visit St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay to see the aurora borealis on Friday in Whitley Bay, England. Ian Forsyth/Getty Images hide caption

People visit St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay to see the aurora borealis on Friday in Whitley Bay, England.

While this storm will undoubtedly keep satellite operators and utilities busy over the next few days, individuals don't really need to do much to get ready.

"As far as what the general public should be doing, hopefully they're not having to do anything," Dahl said. "Weather permitting, they may be visible again tonight." He advised that the largest problem could be a brief blackout, so keeping some flashlights and a radio handy might prove helpful.

I took these photos near Ranfurly in Central Otago, New Zealand. Anyone can use them please spread far and wide. :-) https://t.co/NUWpLiqY2S — Dr Andrew Dickson reform/ACC (@AndrewDickson13) May 10, 2024

And don't forget to go outside and look up, adds Steenburgh. This event's aurora is visible much further south than usual.

A faint aurora can be detected by a modern cell phone camera, he adds, so even if you can't see it with your eyes, try taking a photo of the sky.

The aurora "is really the gift from space weather," he says.

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There’s a new highly transmissible COVID-19 variant. Could FLiRT lead to a summer uptick?

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Two new COVID-19 subvariants, collectively nicknamed FLiRT, are increasingly edging out the winter’s dominant strain ahead of a possible summer uptick in coronavirus infections.

The new FLiRT subvariants, officially known as KP.2 and KP.1.1, are believed to be roughly 20% more transmissible than their parent, JN.1 , the winter’s dominant subvariant, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease expert at UC San Francisco.

The two FLiRT subvariants combined comprised an estimated 35% of coronavirus infections nationally for the two-week period that began April 28, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By contrast, JN.1 is now believed to comprise 16% of infections; in mid-winter, it was blamed for more than 80%.

“It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a new dominant variant in the U.S.,” said Dr. David Bronstein, an infectious diseases specialist at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. “With each of these variants that takes over from the one before it, we do see increased transmissibility — it’s easier to spread from person to person. So, that’s really the concern with FLiRT.”

The largest FLiRT subvariant, KP.2, is growing particularly fast as a proportion of coronavirus infections. In late March, it made up just 4% of estimated infections nationally; most recently, it’s estimated to make up 28.2%.

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The new subvariants have been dubbed FLiRT for the mutations on the evolved COVID-19 virus. “So instead of an ‘L,’ there’s an ‘F.’ And instead of a ‘T,’ there’s an ‘R.’ And then they put an ‘i’ in to make it cute,” Chin-Hong said.

Despite their increased transmissibility, the new mutations don’t appear to result in more severe disease. And the vaccine is expected to continue working well, given the new subvariants are only slightly different from the winter version.

The entry of the subvariants also come as COVID-19 hospitalizations hit record lows. For the week ending April 27, there were 5,098 admissions — one-seventh of this winter’s peak, in which 35,137 admissions were reported for the week that ended Jan. 6.

However, as of May 1, hospitals nationwide are no longer required to report COVID-19 admissions to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; only voluntarily submitted data will now be posted nationally.

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In Los Angeles County, COVID-19 levels appear to be in a lull. For the week that ended April 27, coronavirus levels in L.A. County wastewater were at 8% of the winter peak.

Still, some doctors say they wouldn’t be surprised if there is a summer uptick in COVID cases — as has occurred in prior seasons.

“By the summer, we can expect people’s immunity to be a little bit lower,” Chin-Hong said. For those who are older or immunocompromised, “they are potentially at risk for getting more serious disease.”

Plus, people often gather indoors during summer to avoid the heat, which can increase the risk of transmission in crowded public venues.

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April 24, 2024

Chin-Hong said he is seeing COVID-19 patients at UC San Francisco with serious illness, and “they were either very old or very immune compromised and they didn’t get the most recent shots.”

That the FLiRT subvariants are more easily able to spread underscores how important it is for those most at risk to be up to date on vaccinations and stay away from those who are sick, doctors say.

And while the chance of long COVID is likely less than the early days of the pandemic, it still exists.

Many people haven’t gotten a recent COVID-19 vaccination, data show. For the week that ended Feb. 24, 29% of seniors nationwide had received a dose of the updated vaccine that became available in September . In California, as of April 30, about 36% of seniors had received an updated dose.

Older Californians now eligible for another COVID-19 vaccine dose

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that seniors 65 and older get a second dose of the 2023-24 COVID-19 vaccination.

March 13, 2024

“We are still seeing those hospitalizations and bad outcomes, and even folks who are passing away from COVID. It hasn’t gone away,” Bronstein said. “The good news is that the ... vaccine still is very good at protecting you against hospitalizations, severe outcomes and death.”

Between October and April, more than 42,000 COVID-19 deaths were recorded nationally, according to the CDC. That’s significantly larger than the estimated flu deaths over the same time: 24,000.

Still, the number is smaller than the comparable period for the prior season, when more than 70,000 COVID deaths were reported. And that tally is far smaller than the first two devastating pandemic winters: Between October 2021 and April 2022, more than 272,000 deaths were recorded; and between October 2020 and April 2021, the number was more than 370,000.

The CDC in February recommended that seniors 65 and older get a second dose of the updated vaccine as long as it had been at least four months since an earlier injection. The CDC also says everyone 6 months and older should get a dose of the updated vaccine.

“Right now, the most important thing that folks can do is get the vaccine,” Bronstein said. He suggested those who are especially vulnerable continue to mask whenever possible, especially in places like crowded airports and planes.

In addition, he said, it’s important that people who are sick stay at home to avoid spreading germs to others, particularly the elderly. And if sickened people must leave home, they should wear a mask around others.

“Even in the summertime, what may feel like a cold can actually be a COVID infection,” Bronstein said. “We need to make sure that if you’re sick, that we’re testing whenever possible, staying home ... and make sure that your symptoms are more mild before you decide to go back to your regular activities.”

U.S. health officials drop 5-day isolation time for COVID-19

The CDC said people who test positive for COVID-19 no longer need to stay in isolation for five days and can return to regular activities if their symptoms are mild and improving and it’s been a day since they’ve had a fever.

March 1, 2024

California recommends that people with COVID-19 symptoms stay home until symptoms are mild and improving and they haven’t had a fever for 24 hours without medication.

They should also mask around others while indoors for 10 days after becoming sick or, if they have no symptoms, after testing positive. They can stop wearing a mask sooner, if they have two consecutive negative rapid test results at least a day apart. But they should avoid contact with all higher-risk people for 10 days, according to the state Department of Public Health.

And ahead of travel plans this summer, Chin-Hong suggested that older people speak with their healthcare provider about making sure that, should they come down with COVID-19, that Paxlovid can be prescribed without interfering with other medications. Paxlovid is an antiviral drug that, when taken by people at risk for severe COVID-19 who have mild-to-moderate illness, reduces the risk of hospitalization and death.

Chin-Hong also suggests that it makes sense for healthcare providers to prescribe Paxlovid to higher-risk people planning to travel where the medicine may not be readily available, as a “just-in-case” prescription. Clinicians have that discretion since Paxlovid has been fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which gives healthcare providers greater leeway in deciding when to prescribe the drug.

Earlier this year, another medicine was also made available to help protect the most vulnerable people — such as cancer patients and those who have received organ transplants. It’s a monoclonal antibody called Pemgarda , which is administered intravenously and can be given once every three months. Authorized by the FDA for emergency use, it’s given prophylactically and can help recipients prevent COVID-19 if they are later exposed to an infected person.

Anticipation is also building for a fresh version of the COVID-19 vaccine to be released possibly by September. It could be designed against last winter’s JN.1 strain, but it’s also possible officials decide it should be designed against the rising FLiRT subvariants, Chin-Hong said.

More to Read

A new coronavirus variant may be behind California’s COVID rise

Dec. 23, 2023

New COVID-19 vaccinations are coming, CDC says. The shots will likely be available this week

Sept. 12, 2023

New COVID vaccine, due as early as next week, appears to work well against Pirola subvariant

Sept. 6, 2023

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Rong-Gong Lin II is a Metro reporter based in San Francisco who specializes in covering statewide earthquake safety issues and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bay Area native is a graduate of UC Berkeley and started at the Los Angeles Times in 2004.

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The Possible Collapse of the U.S. Home Insurance System

A times investigation found climate change may now be a concern for every homeowner in the country..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. And this is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today, my colleague, Christopher Flavelle, on a “Times” investigation into one of the least known and most consequential effects of climate change — insurance — and why it may now be a concern for every homeowner in the country.

It’s Wednesday, May 15.

So, Chris, you and I talked a while ago about how climate change was really wreaking havoc in the insurance market in Florida. You’ve just done an investigation that takes a look into the insurance markets more broadly and more deeply. Tell us about it.

Yeah, so I cover climate change, in particular the way climate shocks affect different parts of American life. And insurance has become a really big part of that coverage. And Florida is a great example. As hurricanes have gotten worse and more frequent, insurers are paying out more and more money to rebuild people’s homes. And that’s driving up insurance costs and ultimately driving up the cost of owning a home in Florida.

So we’re already seeing that climate impact on the housing market in Florida. My colleagues and I started to think, well, could it be that that kind of disruption is also happening in other states, not just in the obvious coastal states but maybe even through the middle of the US? So we set out to find out just how much it is happening, how much that Florida turmoil has, in fact, become really a contagion that is spreading across the country.

So how did you go about reporting this? I mean, where did you start?

All we knew at the start of this was that there was reason to think this might be a problem. If you just look at how the federal government tracks disasters around the country, there’s been a big increase almost every year in the number and severity of all kinds of disasters around the country. So we thought, OK, it’s worth trying to find out, what does that mean for insurers?

The problem is getting data on the insurance industry is actually really hard. There’s no federal regulation. There’s no government agency you can go to that holds this data. If you talk to the insurers directly, they tend to be a little reluctant to share information about what they’re going through. So we weren’t sure where to go until, finally, we realized the best people to ask are the people whose job it is to gauge the financial health of insurance companies.

Those are rating agencies. In particular, there’s one rating company called AM Best, whose whole purpose is to tell investors how healthy an insurance company is.

Whoa. So this is way down in the nuts and bolts of the US insurance industry.

Right. This is a part of the broader economy that most people would never experience. But we asked them to do something special for us. We said, hey, can you help us find the one number that would tell us reporters just how healthy or unhealthy this insurance market is state by state over time? And it turns out, there is just such a number. It’s called a combined ratio.

OK, plain English?

Plain English, it is the ratio of revenue to costs, how much money these guys take in for homeowner’s insurance and how much they pay out in costs and losses. You want your revenue to be higher than your costs. If not, you’re in trouble.

So what did you find out?

Well, we got that number for every state, going back more than a decade. And what it showed us was our suspicions were right. This market turmoil that we were seeing in Florida and California has indeed been spreading across the country. And in fact, it turns out that in 18 states, last year, the homeowner’s insurance market lost money. And that’s a big jump from 5 or 10 years ago and spells real trouble for insurance and for homeowners and for almost every part of the economy.

So the contagion was real.

Right. This is our first window showing us just how far that contagion had spread. And one of the really striking things about this data was it showed the contagion had spread to places that I wouldn’t have thought of as especially prone to climate shocks — for example, a lot of the Midwest, a lot of the Southeast. In fact, if you think of a map of the country, there was no state between Pennsylvania and the Dakotas that didn’t lose money on homeowner’s insurance last year.

So just huge parts of the middle of the US have become unprofitable for homeowner’s insurance. This market is starting to buckle under the cost of climate change.

And this is all happening really fast. When we did the Florida episode two years ago, it was a completely new phenomenon and really only in Florida. And now it’s everywhere.

Yeah. And that’s exactly what’s so striking here. The rate at which this is becoming, again, a contagion and spreading across the country is just demolishing the expectations of anyone I’ve spoken to. No one thought that this problem would affect so much of the US so quickly.

So in these states, these new places that the contagion has spread to, what exactly is happening that’s causing the insurance companies to fold up shop?

Yeah. Something really particular is happening in a lot of these states. And it’s worth noting how it’s surprised everyone. And what that is, is formally unimportant weather events, like hailstorms or windstorms, those didn’t used to be the kind of thing that would scare insurance companies. Obviously, a big problem if it destroys your home or damages your home. But for insurers, it wasn’t going to wipe them out financially.

Right. It wasn’t just a complete and utter wipeout that the company would then have to pony up a lot of money for.

Exactly. And insurers call them secondary perils, sort of a belittling term, something other than a big deal, like a hurricane.

These minor league weather events.

Right. But those are becoming so frequent and so much more intense that they can cause existential threats for insurance companies. And insurers are now fleeing states not because of hurricanes but because those former things that were small are now big. Hailstorms, wildfires in some places, previous annoyances are becoming real threats to insurers.

Chris, what’s the big picture on what insurers are actually facing? What’s happening out there numbers-wise?

This is a huge threat. In terms of the number of states where this industry is losing money, it’s more than doubled from 10 years ago to basically a third of the country. The amount they’re losing is enormous. In some states, insurers are paying out $1.25 or even $1.50 for every dollar they bring in, in revenue, which is totally unsustainable.

And the result is insurers are making changes. They are pulling back from these markets. They’re hiking premiums. And often, they’re just dropping customers. And that’s where this becomes real, not just for people who surf balance sheets and trade in the stock market. This is becoming real for homeowners around the country, who all of a sudden increasingly can’t get insurance.

So, Chris, what’s the actual implication? I mean, what happens when people in a state can’t get insurance for their homes?

Getting insurance for a home is crucial if you want to sell or buy a home. Most people can’t buy a home without a mortgage. And banks won’t issue a mortgage without home insurance. So if you’ve got a home that insurance company doesn’t want to cover, you got a real problem. You need to find insurance, or that home becomes very close to unsellable.

And as you get fewer buyers, the price goes down. So this doesn’t just hurt people who are paying for these insurance premiums. It hurts people who want to sell their homes. It even could hurt, at some point, whole local economies. If home values fall, governments take in less tax revenue. That means less money for schools and police. It also means people who get hit by disasters and have to rebuild their homes all of a sudden can’t, because their insurance isn’t available anymore. It’s hard to overstate just how big a deal this is.

And is that actually happening, Chris? I mean, are housing markets being dragged down because of this problem with the insurance markets right now?

Anecdotally, we’ve got reports that in places like Florida and Louisiana and maybe in parts of California, the difficulty of getting insurance, the crazy high cost of insurance is starting to depress demand because not everyone can afford to pay these really high costs, even if they have insurance. But what we wanted to focus on with this story was also, OK, we know where this goes eventually. But where is it beginning? What are the places that are just starting to feel these shocks from the insurance market?

And so I called around and asked insurance agents, who are the front lines of this. They’re the ones who are struggling to find insurance for homeowners. And I said, hey, is there one place that I should go if I want to understand what it looks like to homeowners when all of a sudden insurance becomes really expensive or you can’t even find it? And those insurance agents told me, if you want to see what this looks like in real life, go to a little town called Marshalltown in the middle of Iowa.

We’ll be right back.

So, Chris, you went to Marshalltown, Iowa. What did you find?

Even before I got to Marshalltown, I had some idea I was in the right spot. When I landed in Des Moines and went to rent a car, the nice woman at the desk who rented me a car, she said, what are you doing here? I said, I’m here to write a story about people in Iowa who can’t get insurance because of storms. She said, oh, yeah, I know all about that. That’s a big problem here.

Even the rental car lady.

Even the rental car lady knew something was going on. And so I got into my rental car and drove about an hour northeast of Des Moines, through some rolling hills, to this lovely little town of Marshalltown. Marshalltown is a really cute, little Midwestern town with old homes and a beautiful courthouse in the town square. And when I drove through, I couldn’t help noticing all the roofs looked new.

What does that tell you?

Turns out Marshalltown, despite being a pastoral image of Midwestern easy living, was hit by two really bad disasters in recent years — first, a devastating tornado in 2018 and then, in 2020, what’s called a derecho, a straight-line wind event that’s also just enormously damaging. And the result was lots of homes in this small town got severely damaged in a short period of time. And so when you drive down, you see all these new roofs that give you the sense that something’s going on.

So climate had come to Marshalltown?

Exactly. A place that had previously seemed maybe safe from climate change, if there is such a thing, all of a sudden was not. So I found an insurance agent in Marshalltown —

We talked to other agents but haven’t talked to many homeowners.

— named Bobby Shomo. And he invited me to his office early one morning and said, come meet some people. And so I parked on a quiet street outside of his office, across the street from the courthouse, which also had a new roof, and went into his conference room and met a procession of clients who all had versions of the same horror story.

It was more — well more of double.

A huge reduction in coverage with a huge price increase.

Some people had faced big premium hikes.

I’m just a little, small business owner. So every little bit I do feel.

They had so much trouble with their insurance company.

I was with IMT Insurance forever. And then when I moved in 2020, Bobby said they won’t insure a pool.

Some people had gotten dropped.

Where we used to see carriers canceling someone for frequency of three or four or five claims, it’s one or two now.

Some people couldn’t get the coverage they needed. But it was versions of the same tale, which is all of a sudden, having homeowner’s insurance in Marshalltown was really difficult. But I wanted to see if it was bigger than just Marshalltown. So the next day, I got back in my car and drove east to Cedar Rapids, where I met another person having a version of the same problem, a guy named Dave Langston.

Tell me about Dave.

Dave lives in a handsome, modest, little townhouse on a quiet cul-de-sac on a hill at the edge of Cedar Rapids. He’s the president of his homeowners association. There’s 17 homes on this little street. And this is just as far as you could get from a danger zone. It looks as safe as could be. But in January, they got a letter from the company that insures him and his neighbors, saying his policy was being canceled, even though it wasn’t as though they’d just been hit by some giant storm.

So then what was the reason they gave?

They didn’t give a reason. And I think people might not realize, insurers don’t have to give a reason. Insurance policies are year to year. And if your insurance company decides that you’re too much of a risk or your neighborhood is too much of a risk or your state is too much of a risk, they can just leave. They can send you a letter saying, forget it. We’re canceling your insurance. There’s almost no protection people have.

And in this case, the reason was that this insurance company was losing too much money in Iowa and didn’t want to keep on writing homeowner’s insurance in the state. That was the situation that Dave shared with tens of thousands of people across the state that were all getting similar letters.

What made Dave’s situation a little more challenging was that he couldn’t get new insurance. He tried for months through agent after agent after agent. And every company told him the same thing. We won’t cover you. Even though these homes are perfectly safe in a safe part of the state, nobody would say yes. And it took them until basically two days before their insurance policy was going to run out until they finally found new coverage that was far more expensive and far more bare-bones than what they’d had.

But at least it was something.

It was something. But the problem was it wasn’t that good. Under this new policy, if Dave’s street got hit by another big windstorm, the damage from that storm and fixing that damage would wipe out all the savings set aside by these homeowners. The deductible would be crushingly high — $120,000 — to replace those roofs if the worst happened because the insurance money just wouldn’t cover anywhere close to the cost of rebuilding.

He said to me, we didn’t do anything wrong. This is just what insurance looks like today. And today, it’s us in Cedar Rapids. Everyone, though, is going to face a situation like this eventually. And Dave is right. I talked to insurance agents around the country. And they confirmed for me that this kind of a shift towards a new type of insurance, insurance that’s more expensive and doesn’t cover as much and makes it harder to rebuild after a big disaster, it’s becoming more and more common around the country.

So, Chris, if Dave and the people you spoke to in Iowa were really evidence that your hunch was right, that the problem is spreading and rapidly, what are the possible fixes here?

The fix that people seem most hopeful about is this idea that, what if you could reduce the risk and cause there to be less damage in the first place? So what some states are doing is they’re trying to encourage homeowners to spend more money on hardening their home or adding a new roof or, if it’s a wildfire zone, cut back the vegetation, things that can reduce your risk of having really serious losses. And to help pay for that, they’re telling insurers, you’ve got to offer a discount to people who do that.

And everyone who works in this field says, in theory, that’s the right approach. The problem is, number one, hardening a home costs a fantastic amount of money. So doing this at scale is hugely expensive. Number two, it takes a long time to actually get enough homes hardened in this way that you can make a real dent for insurance companies. We’re talking about years or probably decades before that has a real effect, if it ever works.

OK. So that sounds not particularly realistic, given the urgency and the timeline we’re on here. So what else are people looking at?

Option number two is the government gets involved. And instead of most Americans buying home insurance from a private company, they start buying it from government programs that are designed to make sure that people, even in risky places, can still buy insurance. That would be just a gargantuan undertaking. The idea of the government providing homeowner’s insurance because private companies can’t or won’t would lead to one of the biggest government programs that exists, if we could even do it.

So huge change, like the federal government actually trying to write these markets by itself by providing homeowner’s insurance. But is that really feasible?

Well, in some areas, we’re actually already doing it. The government already provides flood insurance because for decades, most private insurers have not wanted to cover flood. It’s too risky. It’s too expensive. But that change, with governments taking over that role, creates a new problem of its own because the government providing flood insurance that you otherwise couldn’t get means people have been building and building in flood-prone areas because they know they can get that guaranteed flood insurance.

Interesting. So that’s a huge new downside. The government would be incentivizing people to move to places that they shouldn’t be.

That’s right. But there’s even one more problem with that approach of using the government to try to solve this problem, which is these costs keep growing. The number of billion-dollar disasters the US experiences every year keeps going up. And at some point, even if the government pays the cost through some sort of subsidized insurance, what happens when that cost is so great that we can no longer afford to pay it? That’s the really hard question that no official can answer.

So that’s pretty doomsday, Chris. Are we looking at the end of insurance?

I think it’s fair to say that we’re looking at the end of insurance as we know it, the end of insurance that means most Americans can rest assured that if they get hit by a disaster, their insurance company will provide enough money they can rebuild. That idea might be going away. And what it shows is maybe the threat of climate change isn’t quite what we thought.

Maybe instead of climate change wrecking communities in the form of a big storm or a wildfire or a flood, maybe even before those things happen, climate change can wreck communities by something as seemingly mundane and even boring as insurance. Maybe the harbinger of doom is not a giant storm but an anodyne letter from your insurance company, saying, we’re sorry to inform you we can no longer cover your home.

Maybe the future of climate change is best seen not by poring over weather data from NOAA but by poring over spreadsheets from rating firms, showing the profitability from insurance companies, and how bit by bit, that money that they’re losing around the country tells its own story. And the story is these shocks are actually already here.

Chris, as always, terrifying to talk to you.

Always a pleasure, Sabrina.

Here’s what else you should know today. On Tuesday, the United Nations has reclassified the number of women and children killed in Gaza, saying that it does not have enough identifying information to know exactly how many of the total dead are women and children. The UN now estimates that about 5,000 women and about 8,000 children have been killed, figures that are about half of what it was previously citing. The UN says the numbers dropped because it is using a more conservative estimate while waiting for information on about 10,000 other dead Gazans who have not yet been identified.

And Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, gave a press conference outside the court in Lower Manhattan, where Michael Cohen, the former fixer for Donald Trump, was testifying for a second day, answering questions from Trump’s lawyers. Trump is bound by a gag order. So Johnson joined other stand-ins for the former president to discredit the proceedings. Johnson, one of the most important Republicans in the country, attacked Cohen but also the trial itself, calling it a sham and political theater.

Today’s episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Shannon Lin, and Jessica Cheung. It was edited by MJ Davis Lin, with help from Michael Benoist, contains original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, and Rowan Niemisto, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

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• May 16, 2024   •   30:47 The Make-or-Break Testimony of Michael Cohen
• May 15, 2024   •   27:03 The Possible Collapse of the U.S. Home Insurance System
• May 14, 2024   •   35:20 Voters Want Change. In Our Poll, They See It in Trump.
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Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise

Featuring Christopher Flavelle

Produced by Nina Feldman ,  Shannon M. Lin and Jessica Cheung

Edited by MJ Davis Lin

With Michael Benoist

Original music by Dan Powell ,  Marion Lozano and Rowan Niemisto

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Across the United States, more frequent extreme weather is starting to cause the home insurance market to buckle, even for those who have paid their premiums dutifully year after year.

Christopher Flavelle, a climate reporter, discusses a Times investigation into one of the most consequential effects of the changes.

On today’s episode

Christopher Flavelle , a climate change reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

As American insurers bleed cash from climate shocks , homeowners lose.

See how the home insurance crunch affects the market in each state .

Here are four takeaways from The Times’s investigation.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Christopher Flavelle contributed reporting.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Christopher Flavelle is a Times reporter who writes about how the United States is trying to adapt to the effects of climate change. More about Christopher Flavelle

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