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By Arnold Rieger
The Baden-Württemberg state government has decided to crack down on hotspots. Other measures will be followed. Mannheim no longer wants to wait.
At night nothing happens on the streets, also in Stuttgart. Photograph: Lichtgut / Max Kovalenko / Lichtgut
Stuttgart: In Baden-Württemberg, night-out restrictions are imposed for the first time. According to the state government, people in circles where more than 200 corona infections occur per 100,000 inhabitants in a week can only go outside for valid reasons, for example, to go shopping, in an emergency or when they go to work.
The social affairs ministry will regulate the details in a decree, he said. The other restrictions in the so-called “hotspot” areas should also be listed there, such as event bans and stricter requirements for the mask requirement in businesses. The rules will take effect next week, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Six affected districts
Six of the 44 urban and rural districts are currently affected by exit restrictions: Lörrach, Tuttlingen, Heilbronn, Mannheim, Pforzheim and the Schwarzwald-Baar district. Currently, Pforzheim has the highest value in the country with a seven-day incidence of more than 240.
For several days, coalition partners Greens and CDU have been scrambling to find a strategy for the “hot spots.” Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) said this Tuesday with problems with regional delimitation. In the absence of a state decision, several districts announced they would act alone on Thursday.
Mannheim Mayor Peter Kurz (SPD) announced exit restrictions for this Friday Thursday. They must go into effect Friday night and apply for eight days between 9 pm and 5 am So you need valid reasons to leave home, he said. You have to make this credible during a verification. The police are planning mobile and fixed controls. The forces would be “massively strengthened” for this.
The Tuttlingen district and the Schwarzwald-Baar district also wanted to announce stricter rules this Friday to contain the corona pandemic. The exact measures are still up for a vote, he said.
Tighter contact bans
The Ministry of Social Affairs’ draft for a “hotspot” strategy, released earlier in the week, also contains stricter contact bans. Private and public, only a household should be able to meet with another person. So there is also a general ban on events, said Social Affairs Minister Manfred Lucha (Greens) on Tuesday. Hair salons and tanning salons must close. These restrictions are reportedly part of the new decree.
Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) said on Tuesday that the problem was sensibly delineating restricted areas. It does not make sense to direct the strictest measures towards the boundaries of the district, rather it is necessary to arrive at more detailed delimitations. Apparently this was unsuccessful. The state government steering group announced late Thursday that the “hot spots” included “circles.”
Individual measures are not enough
Meanwhile, the “Aerosols” panel of experts, a state-appointed panel of engineers, scientists and doctors, has daunted expectations of room air filters in the fight against the pandemic. Fixed or mobile room air filters could be an important component in the protection concept, especially in rooms where adequate ventilation is not possible. However, individual measures are not enough. Experts recommend, among other things, the installation of CO2 traffic lights that indicate when it is necessary to ventilate a room. They also appeal to wearing the masks correctly.
