“Sounds like a lot of nonsense,” says Philipp Danzer. He’s been running a Mexican restaurant in Passau for five years, “more of a winter bar,” as he calls it. The open space is small, and the store is busier in the cooler months than in the warmer months. Danzer is correspondingly tense when he thinks about the coming winter. The federal government has recently presented its draft for corona rules, including the option of wearing masks indoors – and if Danzer were to have the planned exceptions checked, it would need additional staff. Then it is questionable whether all this is still worthwhile. And when his waitresses check who has been tested or even vaccinated and recovered and can therefore be mask-free? Danzer waves it off. Unlike last year, people really feel like going out again, so that would be difficult to do. Nevertheless, Danzer is concerned, “Corona isn’t gone.” As soon as it became apparent that the number of infections was increasing significantly, the host says he would “advise his team to wear masks”.
After the largely relaxed Corona summer, stricter conditions are approaching again. The federal cabinet approved a draft on Wednesday that provides for conceivable rules from October, regardless of incidence. The countries should be able to impose them and expand them in critical situations. In the first stage, masks should again be mandatory in public interiors. If the countries do this, they must, for example, exclude people who have tested negative in gastronomy, cultural or sports facilities. The exception, which was initially planned to be mandatory, also for recently vaccinated or recovered people, does not come after criticism from Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU), among others; the federal states could decide them voluntarily. In a second stage – in the case of a regionally critical corona situation – it should be possible to issue visitor limits by resolution of the state parliament.
Holetschek had been insisting on a “toolbox” for months. He now welcomed the fact that the exception for vaccinated and recovered people no longer has to be applied. Anything else “would have just wreaked havoc,” he said. It is therefore to be expected that Bavaria will not implement this in the event of a mask decree. But the minister also criticized the mandatory exception for those who had been tested: “The innkeepers and organizers can hardly control who has to wear a mask and who doesn’t.” The minister also warned of a “patchwork quilt” and of shifting responsibility to the federal states. Better parameters are needed, especially for grasping the second, stricter level.
The anticipation of the main sales period is clouded
It is still unclear how the pandemic will develop and what is coming. And also whether the template will remain so after the Bundestag and Bundesrat, Holetschek is also calling for a conference of health ministers. However, there is little doubt that the Free State of Bavaria should at least use the option of making masks compulsory in the tense Corona situation after its long urging. And the vague prospect of it is already causing concern among restaurateurs, cultural and leisure facilities in Bavaria. A sample.
Gerrit Zachrich and Diana Linz run the “Odeon” and “Lichtspiel” cinemas in Bamberg. How do you feel about autumn? Zachrich snorts into the phone: “With great uncertainty.” A touch of normality has just returned for the first time since opening in April, and the open-air cinema is also doing well. “We have to plan as if a good autumn were imminent,” says Zachrich, “we organize concerts and director visits.” Your trust in the cinema concept is unshakable, but not in a meaningful pandemic course. The cinemas were in lockdown for almost twelve months, and Zachrich complains that many of the measures were not proportionate or too short-term. The anticipation of the cold months as the main sales period is also clouded at Juli Marie Vesper. She runs four cinemas in Passau with her family. The survival of many houses now depends on individual films, such as “Avatar”, part two, coming soon. “If things don’t go well, that’s the death knell for many,” says Vesper. She fears that there could be restrictions on the seats in the hall again, and the obligation to wear masks also scares away many visitors. It is neither fair nor justified by infection statistics to cut back more in the cultural sector than in gastronomy.
The objection is probably fed by the memory of the beginning of the year, when restaurants already enjoyed relaxation, while theaters and cinemas had guest limits. But the outlook is not rosy in the gastronomy scene either. Thomas Geppert refuses to ask innkeepers to check exceptions to the mask requirement. The managing director of the Bavarian Hotel and Restaurant Association also calls for binding criteria as to when which corona rules will apply. Overall, Germany must “finally get out of the pandemic”, as some neighbors have long since done. “We have to end panic mode and focus on vulnerable groups,” says Geppert. Everyone else has long known how to protect themselves with a mask if you feel more comfortable with it. “And if I don’t feel comfortable with crowds, then I just don’t go.”
“This is an absolute disaster.”
René Henkel, managing director of an owner-managed fitness studio in Straubing, is also critical of the exceptions to the mask requirement. “This is an absolute catastrophe: how are we supposed to control it?” He needs several employees for this. Then he prefers a complete mask requirement, without ifs and buts, he thinks. And then there are the costs for tests, with training three times a week that exceeds the membership fee. The ambiguity is added, “under such conditions, nobody signs a contract for the gym anymore”. In Straubing they are already offering monthly contracts. Like other industries, fitness studios are also being hit by rising energy costs. Almost the smaller problem, says Henkel: “We’ll see what’s on the final statement. In order to compensate for increases, we first need a reasonably normal winter and autumn. That’s when fitness studios make their biggest sales.” If things go badly there, “we no longer need to worry about utility bills.” Then there is a risk of closure.
At the Westbad, the largest urban leisure pool in Regensburg, you can look at autumn with relative ease. “Basically, we don’t see any coming chaos, but sometimes the new regulations lead to discussions with individual bathers,” says Marion Brasseler from Stadtwerk Regensburg. From their point of view, it is not yet clear whether bathrooms will be affected at all by an impending mask requirement. “We are waiting to see what regulations Bavaria will specify in the Infection Measures Protection Act.” If so, then you know what to do – from experience now. “So we will find a proven solution here too.” But Brasseler has one wish for politicians: “We would like to have more lead time between the decision and implementation. That was a big challenge the last few times.”