COVID-19 outbreak after end of Ramadan feast in Germany

About 700 residents of a flat in Göttingen (Lower Saxony), Germany, are being tested for infection with the corona virus as of today. This is due to a Covid-19 outbreak after the celebration of the end of Ramadan by some families living in the building. Over 100 cases of infection have already been identified and over 200 contacts are in quarantine.

Public life has been severely curtailed to prevent the virus from spreading further. For example, all schools in the city, as well as some schools, are closed and two weeks may not be trained or played at sports clubs. This is because many contact persons are active there, according to the city council.

Most infected persons, the counter was at 120 last night, including 49 children, live in the apartment building. A mobile test center has been set up there, where residents have been tested for the virus since this morning.

“Several large families are at the root of this situation,” said Mayor Rolf-Georg Köhler (SPD) on Tuesday evening to the North German public broadcaster NDR.

Those involved violated the hygiene regulations and distance rule of 1.5 meters during private celebrations of the Sugar Feast on May 23 and 24, he said. A shisha bar in the city also said he played a “not insignificant role”. Several people would have smoked hookah with the same mouthpiece.

It is still unclear whether the violations of the corona rules will end. The authorities in Göttingen are currently concentrating on detecting the contamination chain.

“As soon as they have a little more leeway, they will decide who will start an administrative procedure for violating the rules and who will be prosecuted,” said a prosecutor from the prosecution service.

The property manager of the apartment building has been asked to draw up a hygiene concept for the property and to submit it to the city council as soon as possible.

The corona outbreak in Göttingen is not the first in the state of Lower Saxony. In mid-May that happened in the area of ​​Leer, just across the border at Nieuweschans, where a restaurant reopening evening would have been the cause. At least 34 people became infected, 281 quarantined at home. In Bremerhaven, at least eleven people, including two children, became infected after an end of Ramadan celebration. At the Pentecostal church in the same city, 29 members contracted the virus after private meetings. Another 29 others from Cuxhaven were also infected.

Bremerhaven exceeded the critical upper limit of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants yesterday. This means that previous relaxation of the corona rules must be revoked.