Germans who repeatedly refuse to quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19 will be held in detention centers – and even under police custody, according to reports.
Officials in the state of Saxony – which is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks in the European country – have already approved plans to keep quarantine breakers in a fenced-off section of a refugee camp, the Telegraph said.
Another state, Brandenburg, also plans to use a section of a refugee camp.
In Schleswig-Holstein, repeat offenders will be held in a special area in a juvenile detention center, the report said, citing the German newspaper Welt.
Baden-Württemberg has two hospitals with rooms to house criminals, who will be watched by the police, the report said.
The centers aim to arrest only those who continue to break the blockade, even after being fined, the report said.
States were empowered to do so under the disease protection law, an emergency law that was passed by the German Bundestag last March and renewed in November, Dr. Christoph Degenhart, a specialist in administrative law, told Die Welt.
Joana Cotar, a member of the Alternative populist party for Germany, tweeted that those involved in the centers were “Reading Orwell too much.”
On Monday, Germany saw more than 2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and nearly 47,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.