The city watches over the exit and the gunfire on New Year’s Eve – Freiburg

In public spaces, private meetings, alcohol and fireworks are taboo on New Year’s Eve – also in Freiburg. The Office for Public Order points this out. “On the last day of 2020, you can only meet in a small group this time,” explains Town Hall spokesman Toni Klein. Unlike at Christmas, there are no easing for meetings on New Year’s Eve. Despite all bans and the nightly curfew: the Verkehrs-AG drives.

The Baden-Württemberg Corona Ordinance prohibits private gatherings and the consumption of alcohol on the streets and squares of the city. Celebrations are allowed, but only in private rooms and with a maximum of five people from your own household and one other household.

The current exit restriction also applies on New Year’s Eve, according to town hall spokesman Klein: between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. you are only allowed to leave the apartment with a valid reason.

The ban on fireworks is not a municipal regulation: It is forbidden to ignite pyrotechnics in public spaces throughout the country. The sale of fireworks is not permitted nationwide. Therefore, advertising brochures from supermarkets and discounters that offered rockets and firecrackers caused confusion. Apparently they had been printed before the ban.

The law enforcement service and the police announced that they would monitor compliance with the Corona regulation: “Violations against this will be punished with fines,” it said. Their range goes far.

Even if there will not be masses of people out and about in the city on New Year’s Eve, the Freiburger Verkehrs-AG will not cease operations. The VAG runs shorter than on Christmas Eve: only until 0.30 a.m. on the night of the New Year. Nurses, nurses and other systemically relevant people would have to come from A to B, says VAG board member Oliver Benz: “There will be little going on, but we want to be there for the few who have to be on the move.” One could not motivate the traffic turnaround and the abolition of the car and then stop operations at 8 p.m. Trams have a direct connection to Bertoldsbrunnen every 15 minutes from 3 p.m. and run every 30 minutes from 7 p.m. The bus routes run every 30 minutes from around 2.30 p.m.

Reason for the restrictions is the number of Corona cases: The health department reported 35 newly confirmed Covid-19 infections on Monday (9 in the city and 26 in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district). A total of 4108 in the city and 4647 in the district have been recorded so far. The number of deaths was unchanged at 222.

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