Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Thousands protest virus restrictions
New cases in Germany hit record figure again
BERLIN — More than 20,000 people demonstrated Saturday in eastern Germany against government-imposed restrictions meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus after a court rejected Leipzig’s attempt to move the protest away from a central square, police said.
By the city’s calculations, only 5,000 people could gather in Augustusplatz plaza and keep 5 feet away from one another.
With protest organizers saying they expected at least 16,000 participants, administrators had sought to have the demonstration moved to a larger location outside the city’s center.
“It is hard to explain how only two households are permitted to meet together and yet 16,000 people are allowed to demonstrate on one plaza,” city spokesman Matthias Hasberg said after the appeals court issued its decision,
The court did not issue details about its reasoning.
Few people at the protest wore masks or kept their distance from others despite police warning from megaphones and officers walking through the crowds on foot to caution them. One woman carried a sign that read “For: truth, justice and freedom” while wearing a mask over her eyes and leaving her nose and mouth uncovered.
The city ordered the event shut down a little more than two hours after it began because of mask noncompliance.
Many protesters refused to leave. Police warned on social media that they were videotaping participants to document who was committing crimes or civil infractions with their behavior. About half the crowd remained when it got dark outside.
At a smaller counterdemonstration nearby, people waved signs urging respect for coronavirus restrictions.
The demonstration came as Germany finished its first week of what is being called “lockdown light” with new restrictions to try and slow spiking coronavirus cases.
The country’s disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said Saturday that Germany’s states had reported 23,300 new daily cases, surpassing the record of 21,506 set the day before.
A four-week partial shutdown that took effect Monday closed bars, restaurants, leisure centers and sports facilities and imposed new restrictions on contact with other people. Shops and schools remain open. In other developments:
■ The Australian state of Victoria had its eighth day in a row of no new virus cases or deaths, ahead of another move back to normal living including no limits on travel outside of Melbourne and the resumption of flights to New Zealand.
■ India reported 50,356 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, one-seventh of them in the country’s capital. India’s confirmed cases have exceeded 8.4 million. The Health Ministry on Saturday also reported 577 deaths, raising the death toll to 125,562.
■ Malaysia’s government said Saturday that it will expand movement restrictions to most parts of the country, with coronavirus cases nearly tripling over the past month. Another 1,168 new cases were reported Saturday, bringing Malaysia’s total tally to 39,357 — compared with 13,993 a month ago.