Despite Imminent Return of German Soccer League, Lockdowns Return to Deutschland

As much of the rest of the world begins to emerge from their coronavirus cocoons, Germany is now seeing evidence of the second wave.

The sporting world was delighted yesterday, after Germany announced that the Bundesliga, their top-flight soccer league, would be returning to action on May 15th.  As expected, these footballers will be playing in empty stadiums, and possibly with an abbreviated schedule.

And while this was good news for many Germans, this certainly doesn’t mean that Deutschland is out of harm’s way just yet.

Local authorities in Germany on Friday said they would reimpose some lockdown measures after seeing a cluster of new coronavirus infections, just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a gradual reopening of the country.

In Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the regional government said there had been a spike in cases at a slaughterhouse in the district of Coesfeld, where over 150 of the 1,200 employees tested positive for the virus.

Local officials said the outbreak meant the district would be forced to postpone by one week the planned May 11 reopening of restaurants, tourist spots, fitness studios and larger shops, while residents would have to continue limiting their social contacts.

The step-by-step reopening of schools and daycare centres will go ahead as scheduled.

Germany had previously experienced a thankful slowdown in coronavirus cases over the course of the last few weeks, and we can only imagine that authorities there were prepared for this second wave to begin at some point.

International experts will undoubtedly be keeping a keen eye on the developments in the weeks to come.