Germany pulls ‘emergency brake’ on lockdown easing
German authorities ordered a new lockdown for an entire district – the first since easing coronavirus restrictions and a major setback for hopes of a swift return to normality.
The move came after a coronavirus outbreak at a slaughterhouse that has infected more than 1,500 workers.
“For the first time in Germany, we will return an entire district to the measures that applied several weeks ago,” said Armin Laschet, state premier of North RhineWestphalia yesterday.
He said the lockdown would affect 360,000 people in the district of Guetersloh, and would stay in place until at least June 30.
The new outbreak occurred at a slaughterhouse in the town of Rheda-Wiedenbrueck that employs nearly 7,000 people.
As of Sunday, 21 people were being treated in hospital, six of them in intensive care.
The outbreak in Germany’s most populous state is the biggest since the country began lifting the lockdown in early May.
Local authorities across Germany agreed then to pull an “emergency brake” and reimpose social curbs if the infection rate rises above 50 cases per 100,000 residents over a week in a particular district.
The rate in Geutersloh has soared well above that, sitting at 263 cases per 100,000 residents on Monday.
The new lockdown means a return to measures first introduced in March, with cinemas, museums, concert halls, bars, gyms, indoor swimming pools and saunas shut down, Laschet said.
Schools and kindergartens have also been closed ahead of school holidays this weekend.
The move comes as Germany and the rest of the EU begin taking steps towards getting tourism up and running again, with many European borders reopening just last week.
Several planeloads of German tourists have flown to Spain’s Mallorca island to take part in a test of plans to reopen the popular destination as the country emerges from its coronavirus lockdown.
But the latest flare-up prompted authorities in the German island of Usedom to turn away a couple who had travelled from the affected district.