City of Jena decides on further infection control measures

• City events to be cancelled
• City cultural facilities will be closed
• 3G scheme to access citizen services and city administration buildings
• Sharp criticism of cancellation of early school holidays

The city of Jena cancels all municipal public events until further notice. The city's cultural institutions, first and foremost the Jena Philharmonic, the Music and Art School, the Adult Education Centre, the municipal museums and the Ernst Abbe Library, will be closed from Saturday, 11.12.2021. For access to citizen services or consultations for municipal services, the 3G rule will apply from Saturday, 11.12.2021. This was announced by the city leadership and JenaKultur plant manager Jonas Zipf and Carsten Müller at a press conference on Wednesday. In addition to increasing the vaccination rate, another priority would have to be to reduce non-essential contacts in public life. For schools the attendance obligation must be lifted as fast as possible. Daily testing must be carried out in schools and day-care centres.

Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche said: "With a 7-day incidence of over 1000, Thuringia, together with Saxony, continues to bring up the rear in Germany. The health offices no longer get behind in identifying and entering cases. A further reduction of contact in public spaces and increased protective measures where people come together is therefore absolutely necessary. However, the current legal ordinances still leave too much room in this regard. As a city, we will face up to the responsibility and take further necessary steps with the cancellation of city events, the closure of facilities and 3G access regulations for city buildings."

In this context, Ordnungsdezernat Benjamin Koppe draws attention to the existing imbalance in the design of containment measures: "According to the state ordinance, a maximum of 35 people are allowed to gather at open-air meetings. For public events in closed rooms, on the other hand, up to 500 people are permitted under certain conditions. This is difficult to comprehend and at the same time difficult to communicate to the public. In view of the extremely tense pandemic situation, it is necessary to tighten up the regulations as quickly as possible. We therefore demand that the state define comprehensible and at the same time more far-reaching regulations in order to be able to better deal with the dynamics of the infection situation in Thuringia. The pandemic is still out of control."

Jonas Zipf, plant manager of JenaKultur: "As a cultural and educational enterprise, we live from the fact that people meet. However, what otherwise fills our mission and work becomes a problem in times of a pandemic. Unfortunately, the past few weeks have shown that reducing access to 3G or even 2G has not been able to get the infection under control. Ever-changing measures, combined with a rising level of illness, have also recently presented us with the challenge of maintaining operations in the facilities. It is therefore not easy for us to make decisions about facility closures together with the staff management. But we ultimately make them in the interests of our employees and customers."

Carsten Müller, member of the JenaKultur staff responsible for tourism and events, added: "The closure of our facilities should also be associated with a clear signal. Neither we, nor our partners will manage to get through this winter with the previous instruments. We are motivating employees as well as visitors and guests to get vaccinated. Without consistent contact reduction we will not stop the current trend. A mere tightening of the previous measures to 2Gplus would drive our partners in gastronomy, hotel business, event industry and retail trade further into the economic sidelines without them being entitled to economic aid. That's why we need to talk about industry-specific lockdowns accompanied by sufficient economic aid. Otherwise, Thuringia faces a collapse of numerous companies in the service sector."

Strengthen infection control in schools and daycare centers - now!

In addition, the city demands from the state of Thuringia to strengthen infection protection for daycare centers and schools, and to do so immediately. Alone 25% of all Corona cases in Thuringia occur in 0-19 year olds. In Jena, almost all schools and daycare centers are restricted in their operations by infection incidents. Currently, about 60 groups or classes are in quarantine. The 7-day incidence among 6-10 year olds in Jena is over 2000. Against this background, the state's refusal of early Christmas holidays is even more incomprehensible.

In addition mayor Christian Gerlitz says: The Pandemie is up-to-date a Pandemie of the unvaccinated ones. And with it it is naturally evenly above all also a Pandemie of the Kitas and primary schools, because nowhere so many humans meet, for which there are still no inoculation offers. In the primary schools we have today an incidence of 2315, ten times higher compared to 231 in the 65-80 year olds. In many institutions, we shimmy from quarantine to quarantine, each time combined with high stress for teachers, children as well as parents, who always have to change at short notice. But while we can determine more far-reaching measures for the event or cultural sector of the city ourselves, which are now so urgently needed to improve the situation, in the education sector the Thuringian Ministry of Education acts alone."

Especially in this sensitive area, where a large number of contacts occur daily and infections are carried from the families to the schools and daycare centers or from there back again, the infection control measures are from the point of view of the city of Jena until now not in the approach sufficient to contain the now out of control pandemic again.

"Other federal states show how even in particularly affected counties, for example, with daily testing offers, it goes better. In Thuringia, on the other hand, there are always situations in which only on Tuesday or even Wednesday the first time in the week can be tested at all, because simply no tests are available. From our point of view, in addition to daily testing opportunities in the facilities, we now also need a limited lifting of compulsory attendance and a scheduled early start to the holidays. The time before and after Christmas must be used to reduce contacts as much as possible and then to restart the so important and urgently needed educational operations in schools and daycare centers with comprehensive infection control measures," said Education Director Eberhard Hertzsch.

Mayor Gerlitz added: "With the cancellation of early Christmas holidays, the Ministry of Education is deliberately letting the pandemic wave run its course, and this shortly before the new vaccination offers open up a possibility for many families to get through this crisis without infections and quarantine. So, however, parents must continue to worry from day to day and many families will very likely spend their Christmas in quarantine."

The decisions of the Jena crisis team in detail

• All municipal events, including concerts by the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, will be cancelled until further notice.
• All municipal museums will remain closed as of 11.12.2021.
• The adult education centre and the art and music schools will switch exclusively to online teaching from 11.12.2021. There will be no face-to-face classes.
• The Ernst Abbe Library will be closed from 11.12.2021. Ordered books can be picked up or borrowed books can be returned.
• The Jena TouristInformation reduces its opening hours and remains closed on Monday, Tuesday and Sunday.
• For access to the citizen service or for the perception of consultation in the buildings of the city administration, the 3G rule applies from Saturday, 11.12.2021. Only those tested, vaccinated or recovered will be allowed to enter the buildings.

The crisis team of the city of Jena demands the following from the state of Thuringia

• Uniform regulations for further contact reduction in the event and cultural area
• Comprehensive contact restrictions in public areas
• Testing possibilities for all day care centers
• Mandatory daily testing in schools
• The abolition of compulsory attendance until the Christmas holidays
• Bringing forward the school holidays - as has already been done in other federal states.
• Clear measures to support sectors that are particularly hard hit, such as the catering, hotel, retail and event industries.

Graph on the incidence of infections in the city of Jena