Berlin, Sep 10 (IANS): The German federal government has extended its travel warning for more than 160 non-European Union (EU) countries due to the Covid-19 pandemic until the end of September.

From October onwards, the travel warnings will be replaced with "differentiated travel and security warnings" applying to individual countries, Xinhua news agency quoted the Federal Foreign Office as saying in a statement on Wednesday.

The previous travel warning was set to expire on September 14.

An early lifting of travel warning in country-specific individual cases would be announced separately, according to the Foreign Office.

Unnecessary tourist travel to countries that were not classified as risk areas would still be discouraged if these countries restricted entry to or from Germany, the government stressed in the statement.

For the evaluation, the government would also consider the overall situation in the respective country, such as the state of health systems, when issuing travel warnings.

Anyone entering Germany from a risk area must go into home quarantine and inform the responsible health authority, according to the government.

Since the beginning of August, all persons entering Germany from a risk area also have to present a negative Covid-19 test within 48 hours of taking it or be tested within 72 hours of arrival.

Test centres have been set up at airports and train stations and other easily accessible locations for tests across Germany.

According to the government, the tests for returning travelers are free of charge.

As of Thursday, the total number of coronavirus cases in Germany stood at 256,433, with 9,408 deaths.