Status: 17.03.2021 9:46 p.m.
The city of Papenburg is the regional leader in the Emsland with an incidence of just under 300. Mayor Jan Peter Bechtluft had turned to the residents with a video appeal.
There was “a lot of positive feedback” on the video message, said Bechtluft (CDU) on Wednesday the NDR in Lower Saxony. The range was “very, very good”. He now hopes that the call will lead to the number of cases in Papenburg “developing downwards”. By Wednesday afternoon, more than 1,900 users had viewed the Bechtluft video on YouTube. The CDU politician sent a video message on Tuesday to warn Papenburg to adhere to the Corona rules so that the city does not lead the entire district into a lockdown. “You can really believe me, it also gives me no pleasure to be seen as a brake on fun and spoil games and to be perceived as such,” said the CDU politician in the video.
Bechtluft criticizes “masks at half mast”
Bechtluft justified his speech to the citizens with the fact that Corona is a matter of life and death in an emergency. But unfortunately there are clearly sections of the population who do not take the virus and its dangers seriously enough and thus endanger themselves and others. “The masks are often at half-mast,” said Bechtluft. And young Papenburgers secretly celebrated parties in garden huts, the car tuner scene met by the hundreds in parking lots. The police punished around 30 violations last weekend alone. Bechtluft appealed to the citizens: “We must now do everything in Papenburg that we do not drag the entire Emsland further into a downward vortex and force the emergency brake.”
“Your nerves are on edge”
The police, the health department, employees of the public order department, but also the big employers are doing everything they can to get the situation under control: with information brochures for employees and the prosecution and punishment of violations. But all this has so far not been able to push the numbers down. “This is frustrating for everyone involved and is a massive drain on the nerves that are already bare.”
“It’s your turn when it’s your turn”
Finally, Bechtluft added that he had not yet been vaccinated and that he was not on the list either. And: He couldn’t stand vaccinators. “It’s your turn when it’s your turn,” said Bechtluft.
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