Society – not to the cinema, but to the test

Mals/Schlanders/Partschins – The community of Mals had been hit a few days earlier. Bad news came for the communities of Silandro and Partschins on February 27th: cases of the highly contagious South African coronavirus variant were also found in Silandro and Partschins. It was now clear that from March 1st, a negative test result would also be required to enter or leave these communities. On February 27th, the municipal administrations of Schlanders and Partschins did everything possible to offer test options on Sunday, February 28th. In Schlanders, 5 test lines were available in the culture house that day. The rush was particularly high in the morning and early afternoon. Hundreds of people lined up. According to Mayor Dieter Pinggera, without the extraordinary commitment of coordinator Sonja Gorfer and many other employees, it would not have been possible to set up a test center with 5 lines in the shortest possible time. Many of those who were tested on the last day of February were foreigners, including many people who had to work from abroad to Schlanders the next day. The mood among those waiting was different. The comments ranged from “But now it’s soon enough!” And “Why can’t you get tested by all general practitioners and pharmacies?” To “They preach to us every day to keep our distance and now we are standing here in a crowd” “That doesn’t do anything anyway!” And “If it has to be, we will manage it too.” The members of the South Tyrolean Freedom Council who have already reacted particularly sharply to the classification of the community of Schlanders as a “restricted zone” on February 28th “clearly against the closure of the municipal borders of Schlanders”. One does not understand “which plan the state government intends to lock up the citizens, since so far the so-called ‘South African mutation’ could only be detected in a single person.” The fact that “more and more communities are affected also shows that the Blocking individual communities does not help. ”Compared to February 28 (of 1,077 antigen tests carried out on this day alone, 4 were positive), the queues in front of the cultural center on March 1 were no longer that long. From March 2nd, tests were carried out in the large-capacity gym in Schlanders. The negative test must not be older than 72 hours (test day plus 3 full days). The test station in Partschins was set up in the “Geroldsaal” in Rabland. You could also be tested there from February 28th.

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