Germany: Health expert calls for limit to football fans at games

Germany: Health expert calls for limit to football fans at games.

A GERMAN health expert is calling for the German Football Association and the country’s government to set an upper limit for football fans to attend games after Germany begins to experience a rise in COVID cases once again.

Karl Lauterbach believes that the game between FC Köln and Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, November 27 – which saw 50,000 fans turn out for the derby – should not have taken place with that amount of fans given the recent Omicron variant sweeping its way through Europe.

In a tweet, the health expert wrote: “It sure wasn’t the game alone. But it helped,” speaking about the rise in Covid cases since the game.

“The game should never have been approved like this” he wrote.

“The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia has expressly approved the game and is constantly demanding tougher rules from the federal government. From my point of view, no game should have more than 5,000 spectators.”

Wieso jetzt 5000 Zuschauer? Vor kurzem hieß es noch keine Zuschauer…warum macht man da schon wieder Kompromisse? Das Signal ist doch dann: so schlimm ist die Situation nicht! Ich glaube mittlerweile, dass es Druck von der Straße benötigt, damit die Politik uns wieder schützt.

— Wehmut (@atsonstwo) December 2, 2021

However, despite Lauterbach’s statement, there has been no case of infection related to the Bundesliga game on Saturday, according to health officials from city of Cologne on Wednesday, December 1.

On Thursday, December 2, the German government will discuss more stringent measures including further restrictions on major sporting events after it was revealed on Tuesday (November 30) that the introduction of compulsory vaccination in Germany could be a matter of months away.

In an interview with the German tabloid Bild, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz said: “My proposal is to introduce it at the beginning of February or the beginning of March.”

However, he faces a challenge as there are still large numbers of the German population who are refusing the vaccine for various reasons.

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