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Strasbourg: two days before the inauguration, the shadow of the Covid hangs over the Christmas Market

2021-11-24T09:17:08.562Z


The event resumes its quarters on Friday in the Alsatian capital in a tense health situation. Canceled last year due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the Strasbourg Christmas Market, a major tourist event, resumes on Friday and for a month its quarters in the capital of Alsace with strict measures to deal with a tense health situation. Mourning in 2018 by an attack that killed five people, hampered the following year by important security measures then purely and simply canceled in 2020: in recen


Canceled last year due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the Strasbourg Christmas Market, a major tourist event, resumes on Friday and for a month its quarters in the capital of Alsace with strict measures to deal with a tense health situation.

Mourning in 2018 by an attack that killed five people, hampered the following year by important security measures then purely and simply canceled in 2020: in recent years, the “

Christkindelsmärik

” (“

market of the child Jesus

” in Alsatian) fell from Charybdis to Scylla.

This year, due to the health situation, the return of this event which drains 1.5 million visitors and generates 250 million euros in financial benefits will come at the cost of strict measures, on which the Bas-prefecture has been working for weeks. Rhine and the environmentalist town hall.

If the health pass will not be required to access the perimeter of the event, scheduled until December 26, it will be required to eat in demarcated areas.

Read also Strasbourg Christmas Market 2021, our guide to making the most of it

Likewise, the mask will be compulsory.

Controls will be carried out and mediators will walk the aisles to remind people of the importance of barrier gestures.

Hydroalcoholic gel will also be available on all the chalets, which are more spaced this year from each other and distributed in wider aisles to facilitate the flow of visitors and avoid the effects of congestion.

The market “

invests thirteen places (...) with more than 300 chalets.

Impossible to impose on the inhabitants the sanitary pass for a month

”on the whole perimeter, justified to AFP the EELV mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian.

"Tailored"

Faced with an extremely volatile epidemic situation, the prefecture and town hall have therefore opted for variable geometry measures, which may change depending on the incidence rate. It was thus planned that if it crossed the 200 mark, which is now the case in Alsace, the catering areas (“

food courts

”) would only be accessible with a health pass. The town hall took note of this on Tuesday, 72 hours before the inauguration, specifying that “

drinks

” and “

food

” could only be consumed in these areas.

"

After the sanitary pass control at the entrance, you can

sit down to

eat and drink

," said Barseghian, boasting "

a simultaneous capacity of 1000 places

". “

Tailor-made

” so as not to penalize exhibitors: “

76 chalets out of 300 offer food products

”, she explained. In Germany, where the health situation is even more degraded, some cities, such as Munich or Heilbronn, have canceled their Christmas market, or postponed it indefinitely, such as Saarbrücken.

This scenario is feared in the Grand Est, in a context of a “

dazzling

fifth wave

, as government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Sunday.

But the mayor of Strasbourg does not want to believe it.

The cancellation "

is not on the agenda

", she reacted, emphasizing the work carried out "

with the State and the ARS

", the regional health agency.

Read alsoChristmas market in Colmar: what to expect visitors in 2021

"Optimism"

In addition to the Covid epidemic, the security risk will still be present this year, with "

a particularly high level of terrorist threat (...)

" in France and Strasbourg, warned the prefect of Bas-Rhin, Josiane in early November. Chevalier, announcing the mobilization on the side of the police of "

more than 700 people

".

If the systematic checks at checkpoints on the outskirts of the market, little appreciated by visitors and Strasbourg residents, are abandoned, the police will carry out "

random, numerous and dynamic checks

" at the entrance and in the market, detailed the prefect.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-11-24

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