Because in Berlin there is a Covid emergency

7 October 20204 years ago babelfish

Berlin closed city. At least at night. With the increase in cases of contagion that put the capital at the center of the second wave of Covid-19 , the city's Senate has launched new restrictions starting on Saturday to prevent the situation from going completely out of control. The closure of bars and restaurants from 11 pm to 6 am, coupled with the ban on the sale of alcohol in fuel stations that remain open all night, is one of the consequences.

But that the alarm does not concern only the political capital, as demonstrated by the fact that the same rule was decided by the municipality of Frankfurt, the financial capital. Even on the banks of the Main, bars and restaurants will lower their shutters at 11pm. The joke is that the measure is less invasive there, because the inhabitants go to bed earlier and have to work the next day. German stereotypes, the whole world is a country.

Since the Berlin administration introduced a three-stop warning system to monitor the development of the epidemic, two out of three have gone red. One concerns the reproduction index R, which has exceeded the limit of 1.2 for the third time in a row (yesterday evening it marked 1.26): as Angela Merkel explained in a now famous press conference in March, it means that a one person infects more than another. The second instead reports the number of newly infected per 100,000 inhabitants, and here the average for the entire city of Berlin indicates 44.2. According to the parameters of the Koch institute, the body to which the government has entrusted the management of the pandemic, exceeded the 50 mark, the area is classified as a risk area and a series of precautionary measures are taken by other regions.

But if the city average is 44.2, in four neighborhoods that have a total of over one million inhabitants, the limit of 50 has been exceeded for days. In the district of Neukölln, known for its nightlife and multicultural composition, the index is even 91.5, as reported by the local health agency Lageso. Four other central districts are beyond the threshold: Fridrichshain-Kreuzberg 65.9, Mitte 64.3, Tempelhof-Schöneberg 56.8. Another, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf is fast approaching us (46.8). And the trend is on the rise. Those familiar with Berlin's geography will recognize in the list the neighborhoods frequented or inhabited by the youngest, where the nightlife vibrates, in bars, pubs and restaurants. And if clubs and discos have remained closed, the parties have moved to the parks (almost every evening the police intervene to disperse some of them) or, as autumn progresses, to private homes.

Here too the city Senate tries to dictate new rules. It will not be possible to exceed the limit of 10 people for parties and meetings in private apartments, while outside, between 11 pm and 6 am, the meeting limit is set at 5 people or 2 families. The aim is on the one hand to avoid alcoholic parties, on the other hand to reduce one of the major factors of contagion, parties and private ceremonies. Only yesterday, the health authorities announced the cao of a mega infection of 50 people following a wedding party that involved 30 families right in Neukölln.

That in this second wave the emergency is for now concentrating in the capital is no German exception. Paris in France, Madrid in Spain, Copenhagen in Denmark, Prague in the Czech Republic have become the epicenter of the infections in their respective countries. But this obviously poses problems for the whole country. Also institutional. The political district is located in the Mitte district (which means "center") and for two days the president of the Bundestag Wolfgang Schäuble has introduced the obligation of masks to deputies and officials throughout the building. And since a couple of Länder, in the name of autonomy in crisis management, have already included the most affected Berlin neighborhoods in the list of areas at risk with obligation to quarantine, many politicians will not be able to return to their homes of origin at the end of the week. working, unless the 14-day quarantine is served. This is the case of the leader of the Greens Robert Habeck, who, not being a parliamentarian, is not part of the exception reserved for those who "perform institutional functions", and therefore cannot commute between his Schleswig-Holstein and the party headquarters in Berlin Mitte.

But Berlin's management of the crisis also risks destroying the city government, formed by a left-wing majority made up of Linke and Verdi and led by the SPD. The criticisms that rain down on the mayor Michael Müller (who had, after some initial uncertainty, instead managed the first wave well) have national weight. Marcus Söder, the president of Bavaria and possible candidate for chancellery, said that the situation in Berlin "seems on the verge of becoming uncontrollable": something must be done, he said, we do not want to have an emergency similar to those in Paris in the capital or Madrid. And while at the federal level it is debated whether it is appropriate to adopt common standards for the definition of internal risk areas, also in view of the approaching autumn school holidays, the Berlin tourism agency has announced the suspension of the campaigns advertising to attract tourists to the city. A further blow to the city economy that cannot yet count on a robust industrial background, which is added to the blow that will hit the already tried restaurant sector again. And in the meantime we are thinking about how to slow down the administrative machinery, perhaps by adopting home office measures for employees and reducing the density of traffic in the city. A sort of brake on public activities in the hope of avoiding a more drastic lockdown, which the mayor now no longer excludes.

In Berlin the dramatic dilemma of having to choose between economics and health has once again been reached. The oppositions criticize the mayor for not having been able to stem the crisis in time and denounce the real limitation of the administration: not being able to enforce the rules imposed. Difficult task in a capital full of young people resisting the return of impositions, and moreover the inevitable scenario of all the political and trade union demonstrations that bring demonstrators from all over the country to the political district (therefore gatherings). On Friday there will be a strike that will block public transport for 24 hours, as part of the negotiations for the renewal of the employment contract: a day in which a city in pandemic emergency will crowd into the few wagons of the surface metro line, the only one that will ensure the service. The test is hard and it is also political: in a year we vote for the national government but also for the city one, and the balance of the capital is always an important factor for the whole country.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-a-berlino-e-emergenza-covid/ on Wed, 07 Oct 2020 13:58:57 +0000.