Status: December 6th, 2021 1:14 p.m.
If cafes or restaurants let in guests under the 2G rules without proof of vaccination or convalescence, they face high fines. But the authorities can only check this on a random basis.
Only those who have been vaccinated or recovered are still allowed to visit restaurants, shops or Christmas markets. The hosts and operators have to check this themselves – if they fail to comply with the requirements, they face a high fine. But who actually controls whether the controls are being carried out correctly?
The public order offices are primarily responsible for this. Your task is to visit places where the 2G rule applies on a random basis and to check them thoroughly. If not all guests and employees can show proof of vaccination or recovery, the operators have to fear severe sanctions – in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, they are now threatened with a fine of up to 2000 euros.
Area-wide controls not possible
But the public order offices lack the staff for comprehensive controls. “It is checked on a point-by-point basis and when there are complaints,” says Wolfgang Büscher, head of the Cologne public order office. “We control within the scope of our personnel capacities.” Just because of the high number of restaurants, a complete review is not feasible. There are around 3,500 licensed catering establishments in Cologne and around 45,000 in all of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Since the introduction of the 2G rule in the hospitality industry, however, the regulatory office controls have been greatly expanded, said Büscher. In the past eleven months, an average of eleven restaurants per day in Cologne were checked for compliance with the corona measures. “In relation to the past two weeks, restaurants estimated to have been checked in the high double-digit range,” said Büscher. The response: In November there were a total of 321 violations in the catering sector in Cologne, including 175 violations due to a lack of proof of immunization among guests and employees.
Shisha bar closes
To WDRDuring an evening check in Wuppertal of one hundred guests from various restaurants, nine were researched without vaccination. Three operators of restaurants have to face fines for failing to comply with their supervisory duties.
In Düsseldorf, too, a shisha bar owner feels the consequences. During a random check last Thursday, forces from the public order office found two men without valid proof of immunity. One had no vaccination certificate at all, the other one that didn’t belong to him. Because of these administrative offenses and other violations of the so-called “Shisha Bar Decree”, which among other things stipulates powerful ventilation systems, the owner initially closed his shop himself.
Fines increased
If municipalities cannot control nationwide, the fines are often increased in order to deter. NRW is also going this way: With the new catalog of fines, the fine for landlords has been increased from 500 to up to 2000 euros. In November, Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst from the CDU announced a higher control pressure. “We need significantly more regular spot checks – not only in public transport, also in restaurants and everywhere where 2G and 3G or 2G + applies,” said the politician in the ARD-Broadcast Report from Berlin.
Many restaurateurs consider strict 2G controls to be the right approach. “2G is received very positively, also by our guests. That gives them a certain security,” says Cologne restaurateur Mario Pierastu. He himself has even introduced 2G + in his three pubs. Others feel left alone with the controls. “It bothers us that these control measures are passed on to us restaurateurs,” says the landlady Jana Christen from Siegen.
“We feel misunderstood”
The thorough controls are associated with additional personnel costs – money that is often missing at the moment. “The prices in the purchase of goods have already risen by 30 to 70 percent,” says the restaurant owner Müslüm Cengiz from Cologne. It only hits certain groups, and it gets harder and harder – whether it’s children or restaurateurs. The innkeepers, on the other hand, consider the controls by the public order office to be sensible and important. However, no such control has yet been carried out in the case of three Cologne restaurants surveyed.
What is met with incomprehension, however, is the high fine of up to 2000 euros for the hosts themselves if there are people in their restaurant without valid proof of immune system. When there is a lot going on, someone can always slip through your fingers. “You’re not in there,” says Cengiz. A certain fine is appropriate, but not to that extent. Bar owner Pierastu thinks that the fines of the landlords and the guests without 2G proof are not in proportion: “The guest who is found during an inspection will be punished with 150 euros. We feel so misunderstood”. With the new NRW catalog of fines, the fines for guests have also been increased to up to 250 euros. However, many innkeepers consider this to be unfair in view of the effort that restaurateurs put into the controls.