Berlin | Saarland announced Thursday to end the main anti-COVID restrictions just after Easter Monday on presentation of negative tests, becoming the first German regional state to take this step.
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This initiative comes as the discontent of German public opinion against the travel restrictions imposed by the authorities continues to swell.
“We have decided to relax the restrictions on private and public life”, announced the Minister-President of this small region bordering France and Luxembourg, Tobias Hans.
From April 6, cinemas, theaters, concert halls, outdoor cafes and restaurants, sports clubs will be reopened and restrictions on contacts between people greatly relaxed, he added at a press conference. .
“This will only be possible upon presentation of a negative test on the same day,” he said.
The decision of Saarland, one of the country’s smallest regional states with around one million inhabitants, is symbolic as the German population is increasingly reluctant to accept the restrictions linked to the pandemic.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who advocates firmness in the face of the virus, had to back down on Wednesday by renouncing a form of national containment of the whole country from April 1 to 5, which she had decided two days earlier with the German regions.
Faced with the outcry over the measure in public opinion and the administrative difficulties to put it in place, she recognized “an error” and asked for “forgiveness” from the public.