Full stadiums in the Bundesliga despite alerts due to the rise of the pandemic and the appearance of the new omicron variant

The German government expressed its “incomprehension” on Monday about the situation created last weekend, in which 50,000 fans were able to attend the match between FC Cologne and Borussia Mönglengladbach at the stadium, despite alerts due to the rise of the pandemic of COVID-19 and the appearance of the new omicron variant, detected in southern Africa.

“Experts, like the political field, are warning that all contact right now involves a risk,” recalled the spokesman for the outgoing government of Angela Merkel, Steffen Seibert.

In these circumstances “it is very difficult to understand that matches are held with 50,000 fans in the stadium,” added that government source.

The images of the stands, with a large majority of the attendees without masks, have provoked strong reactions of rejection both from the outgoing Merkel government and from the future coalition of the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz with Greens and Liberals.

While in the majority of the “Länder” – federated states – the matches were held without public or with reduced capacity, in the aforementioned Rhenish derby it was done without limitations. There is no unitary regulation for the whole country, but restrictions on a territorial scale.

Germany has accumulated successive incidence records for weeks. This Monday a new absolute maximum was marked, with 452.4 cases in seven and per 100,000 inhabitants as a national average.

The most affected “Land” is Saxony, with a weekly incidence of 1,284.8 cases, followed by Thuringia and Brandenburg, with 895 and 725, respectively. These three eastern federal states are followed by Bavaria, in the south, with 627.6, although with a downward trend. (D)