The German state of Saarland will largely lift the lockdown after Easter. The lockdown gives way to a large-scale test strategy. Cinemas, fitness studios and restaurant terraces may open again for people with a negative test.
In consultations between the federal states and the government at the beginning of this week, it was agreed that they would extend the lockdown until April 18, but that tests with ‘free tests’ would also be possible.
Saarland’s Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) sees his chance. “We have the best starting position for such a pilot project,” says Hans. The small state – with barely a million inhabitants – has the lowest infection rates in the country, averaging 70 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week. There are many test centers and a relatively high vaccination coverage. The state has previously purchased 2.5 million rapid tests.
Rapid tests
These types of projects are already underway on a smaller scale, such as in the city of Tübingen, in southwest Germany. Three weeks ago, Mayor Boris Palmer decided to throw open the city with the help of massive testing. Residents and visitors of the city can have a rapid antigen test at various stands. If the result is negative, they will receive a day ticket, with which they can shop, have lunch on the terrace and go to the cinema and theater in the evening.
Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria also want to implement such a test strategy. Saarland is the first federal state to adopt this strategy in its entirety.
Prime Minister Hans hopes it will become a model for the entire country. “We want to break new ground in the fight against pandemic,” he says. “After a year, we have to be able to think of more than just locking up and limiting everything”. He hopes to give the population perspective, “in order to be able to enjoy a little more quality of life in the spring.”
‘Paaspauze’
Saarland’s decision is emblematic of Germany’s struggle to make a nationwide corona policy. An ‘Easter break’, which the government and the federal states decided on Monday, had to be canceled yesterday, after there was a lot of protest against it. The contradictions are becoming sharper, says correspondent Wouter Zwart.
“Last year, the feeling of unity to fight together was great. Now, a year later, federal states are taking much more into account their own interests. In the corona consultations there is more and more arguing and the results are getting meager. Instead unambiguous policy, there are all half-baked compromises that do not work. And that is why a federal state is now choosing its own path. “
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