By Joseph Nasr
MEISSEN, Germany (Reuters) – For some in Meissen, the coffins huddled in the eastern German city’s only crematorium are a tragic reminder of what happens when the coronavirus is not taken seriously. For others, it is simply the path of nature.
Meissen, along with other places in old East Germany that are generally poorer, older and more supportive of an extreme right that opposes the blockade, are the hardest hit by the pandemic in the country, complicating Chancellor Angela Merkel’s efforts to control it. over there.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said manager Joerg Schaldach, whose ovens cremated 1,400 bodies last month, twice as much as December last year. More than half died from COVID-19 and Schaldach expects about 1,700 cremations in total this month.
“People are dying alone in the hospital, without a loved one holding their hands,” added Schaldach, standing in the main hall without chairs used for funeral services to make way for coffins. “People get just one call: ‘deceased’. A farewell in the coffin is not possible, they can only get one urn.”
Like many East German regions that had a relatively mild first wave, Saxony, home to Meissen and a stronghold of the far-right Alternative to Germany (AfD), has the second highest 7-day incidence rate in Germany, almost double the national average of 136 per 100,000 people.
The eastern state of Thuringia in the east, where AfD is also popular, is now Germany’s worst hot spot, replacing Saxony last week.
“If the government of Saxony had acted earlier, we would have the pandemic under control. But now we are a national problem,” said Frank Richter, a legislator in Saxony’s parliament for the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
“The pile of bodies in Meissen is a bitter medicine against ignorance.”
Detlev Spangenberg, an AfD lawmaker in Saxony’s national parliament, said the party should not be blamed.
“We have been blocking since November and the numbers are not decreasing. It has nothing to do with AfD,” he said at the end of last week. “We are just saying that the collateral damage from the blocks outweighs the benefits.”
Mistakes made
The governors of Saxony and Thuringia opposed Merkel’s efforts in September to introduce restrictions after the summer, in anticipation of a second wave of COVID-19, only to recognize recently that they had made an error of judgment.
In the deserted streets of Meissen, a city of 28,000 inhabitants famous for its porcelain industry, people had different explanations for the dramatic rise in infections, ranging from naive complacency to skepticism partially promoted by AfD.
“It sounds strange, but I realized that young people follow rules like wearing a mask and keeping distance more than older people,” said Jenna Schmidt, a 27-year-old waitress at a closed local restaurant since November.
“When the numbers started to rise in October, you heard the elderly people say, ‘oh, I’m too old, I’m going to die soon anyway’,” said Schmidt, walking with his son in the snow in the main square that is usually full of tourists .
“It is attitudes like this that brought us here.”
In the crematorium, men working 24 hours a day unloaded coffins marked with pieces of paper with the name of the deceased, date of birth and death and address. Almost everyone was 60 or older. Some lived in nursing homes.
“There is a lot of panic and hysteria,” said Roswitha Zeidler, 60, who works as a cleaner in a hotel. “Old people die all the time. I’m sick of all the restrictions and predictions. I just want my life back.”
Merkel and state leaders will talk on Tuesday about the need for further restrictions when a hard block expires on January 31.
Germany, which imposed a blockade in November that was tightened at the beginning of last month, registered just over 7,000 new infections confirmed on Monday and 214 deaths, about half the figures from the previous day.
‘OWN GOAL’
Although limited testing and low mortality rates over the weekend may have influenced, Health Minister Jens Spahn said the trend is downward, but the numbers remain too high.
Ute Czeschka, an independent member of the Meissen city council, said another factor that contributed to the explosion of infections in eastern German states such as Saxony was the proximity to the Czech Republic and Poland, two critical points on the eastern border from Germany.
“Many of our healthcare professionals and doctors come from critical locations like the Czech Republic,” said Czeschka. “So it didn’t help. But the main reason we got here is that, until recently, many people did not believe in the virus. Now they do.”
SPD Richter lawmaker said skepticism about the coronavirus promoted by local AfD leaders, who during the summer appeared in anti-lockdown protests without wearing masks, encouraged people to disregard hygiene and detachment rules.
“Fighting a pandemic is like a team trying to win a football match,” said Richter. “You cannot win if some players are trying to score against.”
A study by the Forsa research institute found that only 19% of AfD supporters believed that the federal government’s information about the pandemic was reliable and less than 30% of men who support the party followed the rules of distance and hygiene.
This compared to 75% and 65%, respectively, for the entire population.
(Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Mike Collett-White)