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Erfurt (dpa / th) - Erfurt is aiming to open shops in the city for a limited period of time for city residents with negative Corona test results.
"It is an experiment with a calculable risk," said Mayor Andreas Bausewein (SPD) on Thursday.
It is about enabling retailers to sell, but also about testing many residents.
In order to enable the openings in the retail trade, which are planned as a pilot project, the city wants to provide a free rapid test infrastructure for two consecutive days in March: The city is calculating a six-figure sum in costs for this.
Up to five test centers are to be built in the city, for example at a central parking garage or on Domplatz.
Employees from an external service provider would carry out the tests there.
The 12th and 13th, or the 19th and 20th of March are conceivable.
The city is counting on well over 10,000 inhabitants who would accept the offer, said a spokesman for the city.
“Freest-minded” residents should then be given the usual wristbands, for example at festivals, which are the prerequisite for admission to the shops.
In the shops themselves, hygiene and distance rules would apply, as they were before the closings in December.
The municipal public order office would carry out controls.
Customers would have to expect waiting times during testing and possibly waiting times in front of shops that only a small number of customers are allowed to enter at the same time.
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If the test result is positive, the health department would intervene and carry out a PCR test.
If this is also positive, the usual procedure with quarantine and notification would follow.
"We have to find ways of how things can go on," said Bausewein.
If it works, the pilot project as the “Erfurt model” could also serve as a model for other cities and be consolidated.
A city spokesman said it is also conceivable to expand the concept to gastronomy if it is successful.
The prerequisite for the project is that the infection process does not worsen.
On Thursday, the number of detected new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within the past seven days in Erfurt was 72. Throughout Thuringia, the value was around 128. In addition, the approval of the state is crucial for the shops to be opened.
Bausewein wanted to approach Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left), it said.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210304-99-689846 / 2