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Hildburghausen (dpa) - In the Corona hotspot Hildburghausen, all kindergarten and school children and their educators can be tested for the virus for the first time in Germany.
The campaign starts today in a kindergarten in the city of Hildburghausen.
About a third of the children from the municipal kindergartens and the majority of the educators want to take part in the voluntary quick test, said Mayor Tilo Kummer (left) of the German press agency.
Because of the explosion in the number of infections at the end of November, a hard lockdown has been in effect in the entire Hildburghausen district since last Wednesday.
Schools and day care centers are also closed.
However, there is emergency care.
The restrictions were tightened again at the weekend.
According to figures from the Robert Koch Institute, the district in the south of Thuringia again had the highest infection values nationwide at the beginning of the week - although, according to the Thuringian Ministry of Health, there were no new infections at the weekend.
The seven-day incidence - the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week - was 579;
just like in the second hotspot, the Lower Bavarian city of Passau.
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According to the Hildburghausen District Office, around 8,000 daycare and school children, around 1,000 educators and employees from educational institutions can be tested voluntarily.
The prerequisites are created for this - a total of 11,000 tests have been ordered.
How many people accept the offer is open.
On Monday it was said that there had been around 2000 responses from those willing to test.
Some local politicians in the district are also said to be skeptical of mass tests.
Hildburghausen's mayor announced that there could be regular care again on Wednesday for the children who tested negative for the virus.
"Provided we have enough staff who tested negative," said Kummer.
He could imagine that the test offer could be repeated in the coming days, said the mayor.
There was an unannounced demonstration against the lockdown with a few hundred participants.
Not all of them followed the infection control rules.
The district office reacted with a meeting ban, which has been in place this Sunday.
Meetings can only be approved in individual cases and on request if they are justifiable under infection protection law and have been registered four days in advance.
In addition, a general mask requirement applies in the city center of Hildburghausen.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201201-99-524277 / 2