Berchtesgaden is in crown lock

SSince 2 p.m. Tuesday, the Berchtesgadener Land district has been largely on lockdown as a result of a blanket decree based on the Infection Protection Act. Because the seven-day incidence of new corona infections was more than 250 on Sunday and Monday, people in the district are only allowed out of their own apartment for “good reasons.” All schools, daycare centers, leisure facilities and restaurants must close, except for retail stores and religious services. The measures, which also include an extensive mask requirement, are initially applied for 14 days.

“I’m on the phone day and night,” reports Florian Miciecki, head of the communal retirement home in Berchtesgaden, the FAZ, especially family members, have to calm down, organize staff and have them tested regularly. Family members can only visit if residents are dying. Locking up the elderly is not an option for Miciecki. “You can go out now,” says the house manager. However, all residents are reasonable. “Now I go to the cemetery because they won’t let me go after 2 in the afternoon,” one of the neighbors of the house told him on Tuesday morning.

Large influx of vacationers

Miciecki is not surprised by the blockage. “I thought it would be even more massive.” The house manager also points out that Berchtesgaden was recently “brutally invaded” by tourists. They were often very undisciplined when it came to mask requirements.

But now tourism is also over. All guests had to leave Berchtesgaden before 2pm on Tuesday, only business travelers could stay. The mountain railways and excursion boats on the Königssee are stopped. “You can still be away from home,” says tourism spokeswoman Ursula Wischgoll; Hiking alone or with the family is not prohibited. She describes the closure as a “confidence-building measure”, also for tourists.

The industry estimated on Tuesday that 2,500 vacationers remain in the district. When, after the meeting of the Bavarian Council of Ministers in Munich, the coordinator of the crown of the state government, Florian Herrmann, was asked if the rapid departure of so many people would not pose a threat to the rest of Germany, possibly a second Ischgl , only from Bavarian soil, He referred to the “responsibility of each individual to think carefully where he was and then be examined for security reasons.” Municipal testing centers in Bavaria are available for this.