Because the corona pandemic is spreading, the Christmas markets are being canceled and the restaurants have to close earlier.
The number of cases is increasing and increasing – more and more people in southern Baden are infected with the corona virus. Therefore, more stringent measures are being taken.
One after the other crossed the threshold this week. First the district of Emmendingen, then the Ortenau district, the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, the urban district of Freiburg and the district of Lörrach: Since Thursday, five districts in southern Baden have exceeded the number of 50 new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and within seven days. This so-called seven-day incidence shows: The second corona wave is rolling through the region.
The virus spreads more in the cold
The epidemiologists had announced that this would happen. Like the causative agents of influenza and other colds, the new coronavirus also finds better conditions in the cold season: “A lot is moving indoors,” said Marieke Degen, deputy spokeswoman for the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) this week in the Badische Zeitung “There it is sometimes difficult to keep your distance and ventilate well.” The mucous membranes would also become more susceptible to viruses in autumn and winter. “All of this contributes to the fact that viruses that cause respiratory diseases tend to spread more easily in the cold season.”
So the second wave did not come as a surprise. “We were, however, surprised by the force and dynamism with which this wave has now rolled towards us,” said Dorothea Störr-Ritter, District Administrator of the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district, in a video message to her citizens.
Last weekend, the state government had already declared the red alert for all of Baden-Württemberg. It applies when a “critical phase” is reached in the infection process, when so many new infections occur that the contact person can no longer be tracked and the development threatens to get out of control. As early as Monday, there was therefore a stricter mask requirement in schools and in public, for example at events, in pedestrian zones and at train stations. In addition, restrictions on private meetings came into force: only up to ten people are allowed to come together if they are not related and come from more than two households.
As little contact as possible among people – that is now the most important thing for epidemiologists. This is the only way to prevent the exponential spread of the virus, in which every infected person infects several other people.
So all events, at which many people usually come together and possibly stand in close proximity, have become a no-go. What follows will hurt many people in the region: The Christmas season in the cities will be less Christmassy this year.
In Emmendingen, the city canceled all major events until the end of the year last Monday, including the construction of the ice rink in the city center at the end of November. It has had thousands of visitors every year. The Christmas market is also canceled.
The city of Freiburg followed suit on Tuesday evening: the Christmas market was also canceled here. For weeks, the exhibition company FWTM had been working on a concept for the major event that last year attracted more than a million visitors to the city center. The oppressive narrowness of the mulled wine stands would have been an ideal environment for the coronavirus to spread. That is why the town council decided at the end of September to prohibit the serving of alcohol in the market and to set up fewer stalls at wide intervals. But locals and tourists will have to do without that too. All that remains is a bit of a Christmassy atmosphere in the city center: the city administration is installing lighting and putting up fir trees.
Freiburg mayor Horn has doubts about the curfew
Another restriction under the pandemic regulations is about alcohol: where the seven-day incidence is over 50, an earlier curfew for restaurants applies. It came into effect on Thursday in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district as well as in the city of Freiburg, and on Friday in the Lörrach district: the bars must close at 11 p.m. In Freiburg, any street sale of alcohol is prohibited from 7 p.m. It should be prevented that drinking and partying people in the bars and on the street no longer keep the minimum distance of 1.50 meters from each other due to Corona.
But there are doubts as to whether the regulation is effective. Also from Freiburg’s Mayor Martin Horn: “Personally, I am not 100 percent convinced of the curfew,” he told the BZ. In Berlin it had been overturned by a court as disproportionate and there was too little capacity in the prison service and the police to adequately control it.
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