From Wednesday it will be complicated for the bar and Christmas market operator. Then tightened corona rules will come into force again. In addition to the 2G rule, according to which only vaccinated and convalescent people have access, there should also be restrictions for bars. The reason: There guests often sit close together and speak loudly, which, in the Senate’s view, can transmit the transmission of the corona virus from one person to another.

Last Friday, the Berlin Senate passed tightened restrictions. They will be published in the law gazette at the beginning of this week and will come into force this Wednesday. Regarding the expected regulations, Berlin’s Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD) said on Friday, among other things: “We will formulate it in such a way that disorderly food is avoided, but food and drink are still possible in restaurants.”

According to the head of the Senate Chancellery, Christian Gaebler (SPD), bars cannot be closed under the Infection Protection Act because they are catering facilities. “On the fringes of the Prime Minister’s Conference, it was agreed that the old and the new federal government and the new majorities would agree that more should be possible,” said Gaebler.

According to him, there will be a “corresponding adjustment” this week or next. “The aim is to get to the point where it is okay to sit down and eat or drink something. But then there shouldn’t be any wild standing around without any distance. We have had similar regulations in the past, ”says Gaebler.

People jostle on Tauentzienstrasse

In the meanwhile fenced in Christmas markets, the 2G regulation remains, compliance with which is checked at the entrances. According to Müller, the Christmas market-like offers beyond the actual Christmas markets – such as the area around the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz – are problematic.

This week the situation there is to be redesigned. Because on the Tauentzien there are also numerous stalls that do not belong to the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz. There, people are dying towards each other from both sides, on a very narrow sidewalk. “The people who stand at the stalls and those who come out of the shops meet on the sidewalk and cannot avoid it,” says Müller.

That is why he asked the district mayor and the traffic administration to check whether this situation could be straightened out by increasing the distance to the stalls. The operators are also ready to find a constructive solution. According to Müller, we are currently discussing what such a solution could look like.

At the moment, the Senate is not thinking of closing the Christmas markets as in federal states with much higher incidences. Much had been decided at the Prime Minister’s Conference that had been implemented much earlier in Berlin, said Müller.