Innsbruck (OTS) – Germany has declared Tyrol a taboo zone for two more weeks. The incomprehensible decision negates the successful fight of the health authorities against the further spread of the South African variant.
By Mario Zenhäusern
The corona pandemic sometimes makes decisions that are difficult to understand, especially at a political level. Although the spirit and cohesion of Europe is invoked again and again, numerous heads of government play the national violin that we all lose hearing.
Italy, for example, only allows entry from Austria under strict conditions (negative test, 14-day quarantine and much more). This is all the more absurd as Italy itself has to struggle with much higher numbers of infections than Austria and especially Tyrol. In the meantime, the government in Rome has completely canceled the Easter holidays – for Italians and guests. By the way, Austria is not much better: In this country, too, a negative test and a quarantine of at least five days is required when entering the country.
When it comes to incomprehensible decisions, Germany shot down the bird yesterday. The extension of Tyrol’s declaration of virus variant area, which in fact amounts to closing the border, is not justified by anything. The unilateral measure triggered the South Africa variant of the corona virus, which mainly appeared in the Schwaz district. But the district has now been vaccinated, and the health authorities have succeeded in preventing the further spread of the mutant through massive restrictions and meticulous tracking of the chains of infection. The proportion of the South Africa variant in new infections has now fallen to 3.5 percent in Tyrol, while it has increased to 15 percent in the German Saarland.
Despite the successful fight against the virus, Tyrol remains cordoned off from a German perspective and the Saarland unmolested. That is pure arbitrariness. Infection numbers and incidences do not seem to play a role. So what? Isn’t it about the settlement of the Germans or Bavarians with the rebellious Tyroleans? Is the harassment the revenge for the fact that the Tyroleans are fighting against transit traffic on the Brenner route and are not afraid to impose weekend driving bans for cars that want to bypass the traffic jams on the highways on federal and state roads? Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) is traveling to Berlin today, where he will speak to Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), among others. The expectations are great. From a Tyrolean point of view, at the end of the visit there is only the prospect of a quick end to the border blockade. Anything else would be a disappointment.
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