For unvaccinated people in the Free State it will be uncomfortable from this Wednesday on. Then the much stricter corona measures will come into force, which the Bavarian cabinet and the state parliament decided on Tuesday. For everyone who has not yet been vaccinated, this means a “de facto lockdown”, as Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) said. At the core of the package of measures are renewed contact restrictions. According to this, meetings of a maximum of five unvaccinated people from a maximum of two households are possible – those who have been vaccinated, those who have recovered and, for the time being, children under the age of twelve are excluded. As in the previous winter, the police have to do more checks again. In the inspections in Ebersberg and Poing, however, there is a certain amount of perplexity as to how this can be implemented in practice.
“That will be more than difficult,” says the Poingen police chief Helmut Hintereder, referring to the rules that are now in force – and the challenge for the officials to distinguish vaccinated from unvaccinated. “The question will be how this can be practically implemented,” adds Ebersberg’s head of department Ulrich Milius, who gives an example: You can’t ask everyone about their vaccination status in the morning at a full train station, because people would miss their train. Milius and Hintereder are now both waiting for instructions on how to best carry out the controls on unvaccinated people. Helmut Hintereder expects a corresponding paper towards the end of this week. For colleague Milius, however, it is already clear when it comes to identity checks: “We will also approach that with a sure instinct.”
The police and the health department work closely together
Cooperation with the health department, which keeps an eye on the implementation of the now applicable 2G rule, especially in restaurants, therefore remains important. Ulrich Milius said that it would be agreed where controls would make sense. In contrast to the officials in the district office, the police are on the road 24 hours a day. The two police chiefs do not assume that the law enforcement officers will therefore appear at random in the bars in the future. In public institutions one will only intervene if there is a concrete indication that something is going wrong. “We will not carry out any suspicion-independent checks,” says Helmut Hintereder.
Ebersberg’s police chief Ulrich Milius is also a member of the Corona crisis team in the district office.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin / Photography Peter Hinz-Rosin)
It could be different again in the future with larger groups of people on the street, from whom the police officers are quite likely to have their vaccination certificates presented to them at random. In doing so, it is not only the sensitivity that Ulrich Milius mentioned that will be important, but also a certain degree of self-protection on the part of the officers. The Ebersberg police officers are always out and about with FFP2 masks and hygiene measures are also very important in the office in the district town. “I have the feeling that this has been forgotten a bit,” says Milius. In addition, a lot of tests are carried out on the boss’s instructions: “If someone has a runny nose, I don’t want to see them in the house.” He prefers to do without one or the other official instead of taking the risk of infection, says Milius.
The inspections are well organized
In terms of personnel, the two police inspections are already well positioned for the new tasks. Sure, the additional controls would tie up some resources, but work would be lost elsewhere. Ulrich Milius refers to the canceled events such as Christmas markets in winter and folk festivals in summer. “The police will always be able to do their job,” says the Ebersberg agency manager. “Nevertheless, we cannot show off our staff strength.” How the forces can best be distributed for the new challenges will have to be clarified later in the week.
Meanwhile, the corona incidence in the district remains high, on Tuesday the district office reported a value of 635. This is also reflected in the bed occupancy of the Ebersberg district clinic, where 34 patients with Covid 19 disease are currently being treated. 25 of them come from the district. Eight patients are cared for in the intensive care unit – each of them has to be ventilated. According to the district authority, 20 of the patients are not vaccinated, 14 are. Two vaccinated people are in the intensive care unit. There are also 17 suspected cases in the clinic.
Booster vaccinations are well received
Meanwhile, there is comparatively good news when it comes to vaccination, at least as far as the third spade is concerned. Almost ten percent of all district citizens have now refreshed themselves. “I am pleased that the booster vaccinations are now so well received. Our vaccination center is doing a great job with its very strong team,” says District Administrator Robert Niedergesäß (CSU). The overall vaccination quota is still lacking in Ebersberg, which continues to stagnate at around 64.5 percent.