Contact restrictions, curfew and ban on dancing from December 24th.

Created: 12/21/2021Updated: 12/21/2021, 1:10 p.m.

Stacked chairs stand in front of a restaurant on the jetties.

© Daniel Reinhardt / dpa

Big Christmas celebrations in Hamburg will fall flat this year due to the corona.

Because of the highly contagious Omicron variant, the red-green Senate also pulls the rip cord for vaccinated and convalescent people.

Hamburg - In view of the rapidly expanding Omikron variant, contacts in Hamburg will be restricted even before Christmas, even for those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered.

Only a maximum of ten people are allowed to meet privately, said Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) on Tuesday after a meeting of the red-green Senate.

Children under the age of 14 are exempt from the contact restriction.

In addition, dance events would be prohibited.

The ban on dancing is effectively tantamount to closing clubs and discos.

There will also be a curfew from 11 p.m. for the catering trade.

An exception is planned for New Year's morning.

Then pubs, restaurants and bars are allowed to stay open until 1.00 a.m.

Stricter restrictions already apply to unvaccinated people.

You are only allowed to meet with the members of your own household and a maximum of two members of another household.

The stricter 2G-plus rule has already been in place in the city's clubs in recent weeks.

That means: Access only for vaccinated and convalescent people who also had to present a current corona test.

The ban on dancing is likely to hit the industry hit hard by the pandemic.

In addition, the Senate passed the previously announced restrictions on New Year's Eve.

In addition to the ban on the sale of fireworks, there is an obligation to sell and gather at particularly popular locations.

In the afternoon, the prime ministers of the federal and state governments, together with the new federal government, wanted to adopt stricter measures in a switching conference - also for major events.

The reason is a recommendation by the Federal Government's new Corona Expert Council, which warned of a dramatic situation due to the Omikron variant.

The Robert Koch Institute had already recommended "maximum contact restrictions" at noon due to the current Corona situation in Germany.

These should "start immediately" and apply until mid-January, as the RKI wrote on Tuesday on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the corona incidence rose significantly in Hamburg on Tuesday and is only just below the 350 mark, above which new restrictions automatically apply and clubs and discos have to remain closed.

The health authority stated the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week as 344.0.

She reported 1,336 confirmed new infections.

According to the Social Senator Melanie Leonhard (SPD), there are currently hundreds of suspected Omikron cases and 28 confirmed Omikron cases in the Hanseatic city.

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This means that at least 130,706 people have been infected in the Hanseatic city since February 2020.

112,800 of these are considered recovered according to RKI estimates.

The number of people who have died in connection with the virus in Hamburg since the beginning of the pandemic has remained at 1953. dpa