Local lockdowns are not an easy answer to the Covid crisis

Michael Esken was visibly struggling to find the right words. On Friday last week the mayor of the small town of Verl had come to visit a cordoned-off social housing estate. A fence had been put up around the blocks, guarded around the clock by security staff. Six hundred and fifty people, including 60 children, were sealed inside. Such is the tough reality of the measures required to impose a local lockdown, the strategy now being used in Germany to suppress new outbreaks of coronavirus.

Initially, those living in the estate were simply asked to self-isolate, but when police arrived for a random check they found five Romanian workers sitting on their packed suitcases. As Esken explained, “Despite the order to self-isolate, they had decided to travel back home.” It was then that the mayor realised he had to seal off the area.

“This was certainly no easy decision,” he said, “but people need to understand it is about Covid-19, and nobody wants to be infected with this virus.” His district is home to around 2,000 people who work in the Tönnies meat processing factory in the nearby city of Gütersloh where a new outbreak started around 10 days ago.

Gütersloh, with a population of 102,459, has had to close schools, kindergartens and the hospitality sector. Strict social distancing is back. Compulsory coronavirus testing was imposed on people in sealed-off housing blocks.

Since then, public anger has been growing. Many residents in Gütersloh feel they are being discriminated against, and tourists from the area now have to present a negative coronavirus test that is not more than 48 hours old when they arrive in Austrian and some German holiday destinations.

The local authorities have sent social workers into the sealed-off estates to make sure tensions do not escalate. They have also had to provide the people inside with water and food as well as toys and teaching materials for the children.

Germany has been highly successful in managing the coronavirus crisis ever since it started. Experts say this is due to a rigorous testing regime, a well-funded intensive care system and above all the powers of regional and local authorities to quickly test and isolate people infected. This federal system is key to making sure Germany stays in control of a virus that it has done so well to restrict.

Warnings that Leicester may not be allowed to reopen in response to a new outbreak suggest that a system of local lockdowns could be coming to Britain, too. But such measures are only possible in Germany because local authorities have the legal powers to pass decrees in public health crises.

Many are sceptical whether England, with its centralised structure, is capable of achieving the flexibility to stamp out new outbreaks.

Although the lockdown was extended for another week, yesterday Armin Laschet, prime minister of North-rhine Westphalia, in which Gütersloh is situated, announced that the virus had predominantly spread among the factory workers and only a few residents had tested positive. These promising results suggest that imposing local lockdowns can work – but the lesson from Germany is that it is far from an easy answer to this crisis.