13-year old dies in Mitte stabbing, police enforce new lockdown, BER welcomes first passengers
A 13-year old boy was stabbed to death in a Mitte park on Saturday night. A 41-year old man has admitted to attacking the child with a knife after an argument reportedly broke out amongst a group of young people at around 10.30pm in an underpass between James Simon Park and Monbijou Park. Police are currently interviewing the suspect in custody to determine a motive. A 22-year old man was also seriously injured during the incident and was taken to hospital, where his condition is said to be stable.
Federal police were patrolling some of the city's busiest areas today as the new Covid-19 lockdown came into effect. Officers were deployed in greater numbers at major railway stations in Berlin and Potsdam to check whether distancing and mask restrictions were being adhered to. Far reaching restrictions effective from this morning mean entertainment and sports facilities across Germany are being forced to close, with partial closures of restaurants and cafes. There are strict limits on social gatherings: people from one household may meet up with a maximum of two other individuals from two different households, while a maximum of ten people are allowed to gather from two households.
Yesterday saw the departure of the first flight from Berlin Brandenburg Airport, which finally opened on Saturday following a nine-year delay. At 6.45am on Sunday the Easyjet A320 took off bound for London Gatwick as the airline began switching its operations from Tegel airport, which closes this Sunday. The maiden departure followed the low-key opening of BER on Saturday, which saw the simultaneous landing of two aircraft operated by Easyjet and Lufthansa, the airport’s biggest customers. The day featured protests from a group of environmental activists who attempted to block the entrance to the new terminal, though disruption was reportedly minimal.
Army to tackle Covid-19 in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, city’s air quality improves, school closes after outbreak
German army personnel are being drafted in to help the effort to combat the coronavirus in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. In a move that had previously been rejected by the authorities in the district, soldiers are to help with testing efforts at the Gesundheitsamt, which has been pushed to breaking point by the surge in Covid-19 cases. "We need help with testing, as all civilian offices in Berlin are completely overtaxed,” District mayor Monika Hermann told the Tagesspiegel today.
The famously hazy Berliner Luft has been getting cleaner – even before the Covid-19 pandemic put the brakes on the city’s road traffic. Amounts of nitrogen dioxide and particulates in Berlin’s air fell significantly between 2018 and 2019, latest figures show, with levels of the two pollutants lower than ever last year. The numbers vary between measurement points, with recordings for nitrogen dioxide showing decreases of up to 20 percent. It remains to be seen what, if any, effect the pandemic will have on air pollution, though the Senate Environment Administration which monitors the situation expects pollutants to fall again this year.
Today a school in Reinickendorf was forced to close after a Corona outbreak. Two people at the Renée-Sintenis-Grundschule tested positive for the virus, according to reports in B.Z. In a sign of how stretched the city’s track and trace capacity has become, the school’s management agreed with local authorities to place the entire school in a two-week quarantine because tracing the contacts would have been too much work. This is the first such closure since August, when the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Gymnasium had to shut after a similar outbreak.