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Hamburg moves back into hard shutdown as third coronavirus wave gains momentum

The harbour city announced Friday it was rolling back the easing of restrictions, as Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse have also paused the moveout of lockdown, as the infection scenario worsened considerably on Friday.

Published: 19 March 2021 10:40 CET
Hamburg moves back into hard shutdown as third coronavirus wave gains momentum
People with facemasks walking on Hamburg's Reeperbahn in early March. Photo: DPA

The city-sate of Hamburg has become the first German state to move back into a hard lockdown in light of rising infections. The decision is expected to mean that all schools and busineses which opened in recent weeks will close again, while personal contacts will be reduced back to one person.

Hamburg has had a 7-day incidence over 100 on three consecutive days.

“I fear that the situation will continue to deteriorate,” Hamburg mayor Peter Tschentscher said in a statement on Friday. “We are dealing with a very contagious variant of the virus,” according to Spiegel.

Bavarian leader Markus Söder confirmed that all cultural institutions, restaurants and shops will stay closed until the next federal-state lockdown talks on Monday, as the 7-day incidence in his southern state rose above 100 per 100,000 inhabitants.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Berlin, state governments also confirmed that no more easing of restrictions would take place.

READ ALSO: Will Germany continue to reopen public life amid rising Covid-19 numbers?

“We have to remain cautious,” said Berlin mayor Michael Müller. “I have not exhausted everything in Berlin that would be possible in terms of opening steps after the last lockdown summit,” he added.

“We can see how sensitive this situation is. I also don’t see that we have much room for further steps.”

Hesse similarly confirmed that it won’t bring children in grades 7 and above back into the classroom after all, due to rising infection numbers. 

SEE ALSO: German leaders urge quick EU approval of Russia’s Sputnik V jab

“We have a very dynamic situation. The third wave is here,” said state leader Volker Bouffier (CDU).

In total, six states now have 7-day incidences over 100 per 100,000 inhabitants, meaning pressure will grow for them to roll back the limited openings that have already happened and enter into a harder lockdown.

On March 3rd, at the last lockdown talks, state leaders agreed to a gradual easing of the lockdown but tied it to an “emergency brake” which state and regional leaders would have to pull should the 7-day incidence rise above 100 per 100,000 inhabitants for three consecutive days.

The emergency brake strictly means that a region should return to harder lockdown measures, with schools and businesses closed.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported on Friday that the nationwide 7-day incidence shot up to 95.6, from 90 the day before. The disease control agency also reported 17,482 new cases for the past 24 hours, an increase of 5,000 on last Friday.

The RKI also confirmed that a further 226 people have died with or of the virus, marking a decrease from 252 a week ago.

ICU doctors call for emergency brake

The national intensive care register (DIVI) has urged states to stick to the agreements on the emergency brake.

“I hope that the politicians will implement the resolutions according to which the relaxations will be withdrawn if the incidence value exceeds 100,” said DIVI spokesman Christian Karagiannidis.

The federal government has shown its displeasure recent days, as several regions have refused to roll back the easing of restrictions despite having 7-day incidences above well above 100.

One such town, Pirmasens in Rhineland-Palatinate, claimed it would be “disproportionate and illegal” to go back into a lockdown. It has a 7-day incidence of 154.

DIVI spokesman Karagiannidis said that the current situation with intensive care patients was similar to October 2020.

“At that time, there were 3,000 Covid intensive care patients nationwide. If we slacken on vaccination now, keep the lockdown relaxations, and run the incidence up to 200, then it could be 5,000 to 6,000 patients,” Karagiannidis said.

That is “the absolute capacity limit” in the clinics, he warned.

LATEST: Nearly three-quarters of new Covid-19 cases in Germany from more-contagious variant

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COVID-19 RULES

End of the pandemic? What the expiry of Sweden’s Covid laws really means

With the expiry of Sweden's two temporary Covid-19 laws, the downgrading of the virus's threat classification, and the end of the last travel restrictions, April, officially at least, marks the end of the pandemic. We explain what it means.

Published: 1 April 2022 13:07 CEST
End of the pandemic? What the expiry of Sweden's Covid laws really means

What are the two laws which expire on April 1st? 

Sweden’s parliament voted last week to let the two temporary laws put in place to battle the Covid-19 pandemic expire on April 1st.

The first law is the so-called Covid-19 law, or “the law on special restrictions to limit the spread of the Covid-19 illness”, which was used during the pandemic to temporarily empower the authorities to limit the number of visitors to shops, gyms, and sports facilities. It also gave the government power to limit the number of people who could gather in public places like parks and beaches. 

The second law was the “law on temporary restrictions at serving places”. This gave the authorities, among other things, the power to limit opening times, and force bars and restaurants to only serve seated customers.  

What impact will their expiry have? 

The immediate impact on life in Sweden will be close to zero, as the restrictions imposed on the back of these two laws were lifted months ago. But it does means that if the government does end up wanting to bring back these infection control measures, it will have to pass new versions of the laws before doing so. 

How is the classification of Covid-19 changing? 

The government decided at the start of February that it would stop classifying Covid-19 both as a “critical threat to society” and “a disease that’s dangerous to the public” on April 1st.

These classifications empowered the government under the infectious diseases law that existed in Sweden before the pandemic to impose health checks on inbound passengers, place people in quarantine, and ban people from entering certain areas, among other measures. 

What impact will this change have? 

Now Covid-19 is no longer classified as “a disease that’s dangerous to the public”, or an allmänfarlig sjukdom, people who suspect they have caught the virus, are no longer expected to visit a doctor or get tested, and they cannot be ordered to get tested by a court on the recommendation of an infectious diseases doctor. People with the virus can also no longer be required to aid with contact tracing or to go into quarantine. 

Now Covid-19 is no longer classified as “a critical threat to society”, or samhällsfarlig, the government can no longer order health checks at border posts, quarantine, or ban people from certain areas. 

The end of Sweden’s last remaining Covid-19 travel restrictions

Sweden’s last remaining travel restriction, the entry ban for non-EU arrivals, expired on March 31st.  This means that from April 1st, Sweden’s travel rules return to how they were before the Covid-19 pandemic began. 

No one will be required to show a vaccination or test certificate to enter the country, and no one will be barred from entering the country because their home country or departure country is not deemed to have a sufficiently good vaccination program or infection control measures. 

Does that mean the pandemic is over? 

Not as such. Infection rates are actually rising across Europe on the back of yet another version of the omicron variant. 

“There is still a pandemic going on and we all need to make sure that we live with it in a balanced way,” the Public Health Agency’s director-general, Karin Tegmark Wisell, told SVT. 

Her colleague Sara Byfors told TT that this included following the “fundamental recommendation to stay home if you are sick, so you don’t spread Covid-19 or any other diseases”. 

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