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Stefan Bär is the district administrator in the Tuttlingen district in Baden-Württemberg, less than half an hour from Lake Constance. The former leader of the district parliamentary group Free Voters is not very good at talking about the government of the green-black state in Stuttgart. Corona’s requirements, “which change every three days,” Bär said, are always new orders, but there is no help or even detailed information on how all of this should be implemented on the site. “It could have been done differently,” says the head of administration annoyed. Last but not least, you are amazed at the way the government communicates. “We would like to see that we don’t keep hearing about new rules from the press.”
The latest innovation: the exit restriction for districts or cities with a seven-day incidence of more than 200 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants. The state government decided Thursday that citizens of Corona’s hotspots in the country can initially only leave their apartments at night with good reason. Exceptions should only apply to medical emergencies, daily trips, or taking the dog for a walk. The new rules should go into effect next week.
Mannheim is the first municipality to advance with an incidence of more than 200. Residents there have had to stay at home since Friday night from 9 pm to 5 am In principle, each municipality can also take its own measures in coordination with the health department. The announced official decree from Stuttgart, which should also regulate other restrictions on hotspot areas, such as a ban on events or the closure of hair salons, was only available to municipalities on Friday afternoon.
Tuttlingen district administrator Bär believes that exit restrictions can hardly be enforced, at least not in a large district and without additional police forces. Exit restrictions wouldn’t work without controls, but local officials weren’t enough for that, he says. Actually, the additional forces must be deactivated.
Unfortunately, they “heard nothing” from the country. Therefore, the Tuttlingen district decided on Friday to drastically restrict public life: events are prohibited with a few exceptions, public and private gatherings are strictly limited throughout the day. But the administration will again advise on the night curfew, says Bär. “We don’t see any automatism.”
Where there are exit restrictions in Germany
Baden-Württemberg is not alone in deciding to tighten corona measures at hotspots and include exit restrictions in the arsenal of weapons against the virus. Because the “Lockdown Light” did not bring the expected successes, tougher measures were taken, especially in Bavaria and Saxony at the beginning of the week. In the Leipzig district, for example, according to the general decree, residents can now only leave their house or apartment during the day for a good reason, i.e. to go to school or work, play sports or go out. shopping. Masks are required in pedestrian areas and playgrounds, alcohol is prohibited in public places.
Other districts had previously ordered similarly strict measures. Bavaria also announced Tuesday that it would tighten anti-crown measures where the seven-day incidence is more than 300 infections. These include Passau and Nuremberg, among others. There are also curfews at night, from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Even in Rhineland-Palatinate, where the state government saw no need for such steps, two cities have already marched on their own. Ludwigshafen and Speyer, both directly on the Rhine and thus on the state border with Baden-Württemberg, no longer see any other possibility of controlling their high infection rates of more than 300 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. “We want to avoid the meeting in the living room at night,” said Ludwigshafen Mayor Jutta Steinruck (SPD).
Because there, the authorities suspect the origin of a large part of those infections whose origin the health authorities can no longer trace. With this measure, the city wants to make it clear to citizens “how bad the situation is,” Steinruck said. Hospitals are on the attack, so they see no other option. “It’s about saving human lives.”
RKI President expects “many more deaths”
The president of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, expects many more deaths in Germany from the corona virus. Currently, the number of serious episodes and deaths increases from week to week.
The police on the other side of the Rhine want to control the curfew with mobile units and with “very high presence” all night, with fixed and mobile units, announced the Mannheim Presidium. Violations should cost at least 100 euros there.
However, the question is whether the orders are legally valid. In the spring, with the first closure, the Saarland courts lifted severe exit restrictions, for example. Meanwhile, the Infection Protection Act has been expanded and specified. The added paragraph 28a lists a number of possible measures to contain an infection, including exit restrictions and restrictive requirements, for example, for family reunions.
But shortly before the Bundestag vote on the amendment to the law, constitutional lawyer Andrea Kießling had doubts that it is compatible with the Basic Law to issue exit restrictions only at certain times. “The virus is not transmitted differently at night than during the day,” says Kießling. “I think the regulation is unconstitutional.”
The Chairman of the Baden-Württemberg Community Assembly, Roger Kehle, vehemently defends the drastic restrictions on Corona’s hotspots. Although it is a “violent environment”, after “painful considerations”, the Corona steering committee of the state government concluded that there was no other option.
If it had been for Kehle, a very harsh lockdown would have been ordered between Christmas and Epiphany. But other municipalities and the state government did not play.
It’s also questionable how helpful a night-out restriction can be when all the restaurants and bars are closed anyway, and thus significantly fewer people than on Christmas shopping day. However, Kehle is convinced that the night lockdown helps, precisely because there are too many private meetings. Because apparently there is: “If everyone adhered to the measures, the numbers would have to have decreased.”
