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Germany faces a growing stalemate on summer vacation as the federal states roll up the welcome mat for vacationers from the country’s largest coronavirus hotspot.
Around 640,000 Westphalia in West Germany are back in lockdown after 1,500 people who work in a local meat processing plant tested positive for Covid-19.
While workers and their families isolate themselves in quarantine and 100 teams are tracking the spread of the virus, public life in the districts of Gütersloh and Warendorf has come to a standstill again. Schools, day care centers, bars, restaurants, gyms and museums have been closed and citizens have been instructed to limit contact with other household members.
Local politicians have sent mixed signals for wider travel with the state’s summer vacation starting this weekend. The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Armin Laschet has said that travel for people who are blocked outside the country is not prohibited, but not recommended.
“I would warn against stigmatizing people from these counties,” he said on German television, noting that only 32 people except meat factory workers tested positive.
Local health officials have linked the spread of the factory virus to air conditioning that diverts unfiltered air throughout the facility.
Three other German federal states ignored Mr. Laschet’s requests for fear of a super spreader and decided to implement their own restrictions.
The northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a popular travel destination with 2,000 km of Baltic Sea coast, has instructed at least 56 holidaymakers from Gütersloh to leave the country. All further arrivals will be reported, added state officials, as local restrictions prohibit hotels from accepting people from a Covid-19 hotspot.
Last April’s proposals to reopen Germany included an emergency brake requiring lockdown if more than 50 people per 100,000 in a county or district tested positive for the virus. In Gütersloh, the number of positive cases on Wednesday was more than six times as high.
Bavaria, another popular holiday destination, has imposed its own ban on visitors from the Westphalia region, unless they can show a current, negative Covid-19 test.
“We do not want people to feel insecure about a vacation in Bavaria,†said Prime Minister Markus Söder, surprised that there are still no formal travel restrictions.
Second wave
Lower Saxony is preparing its own ban on tourists from the hotspots in neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia, as reports of a virus outbreak have been reported in some of its own meat and poultry operations.
On Wednesday, Austria raised its travel warning for North Rhine-Westphalia to the second highest level and advised its citizens not to travel to the state that was not absolutely necessary.
While Gütersloh municipal officials criticized the restrictions as “discriminatory” for its citizens, one of Germany’s leading virologists said the outbreak was a foretaste of what will come in a second wave.
Prof. Christian Drosten, coronavirus specialist and driver of the German early test regime, said: “I think we’ll have a problem in two months if we don’t turn all the alarm sensors back on now.”
Despite his warning, the Berlin city government has announced a further easing of its restrictions from Saturday.
From the weekend, there will no longer be any restrictions on the group size that can meet publicly in the German capital, while beauty studios and tattoo studios may reopen with hygiene measures. Clubs and discos, saunas and brothels are still closed.
From August 1st, up to 500 participants can meet in closed rooms; by October there are 1,000. Outdoor events with up to 5,000 people are allowed from September.
Berlin has also announced new fines of up to 500 euros for people who violate the mask rules in local public transport.
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