German police and Goettingen residents clash over COVID-19 quarantine restrictions

Goettingen city police officers were injured on Saturday, June 21 after a clash broke out with residents of a high-rise complex in the German city over quarantine measures. According to the reports, the violent faceoff took place on Saturday as a group of residents tried to break a metal barrier that was fixed to keep 700 people living in the residential complex under quarantine in order to curb the spread of the virus. 

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People pelted stones

As per international media reports, the city police chief claimed that some people pelted stones, bottles and wooden debris at the cops during the clash. The residents of the complex were reportedly put under mandatory quarantine after two people tested positive for COVID-19. Another 120 people in the building tested positive for COVID-19 as of Saturday. 

Meanwhile, on the other hand, more than 1,000 employees at an abattoir in Guetersloh county tested positive for COVID-19, prompting local health authorities to order all its 6,500 employees and their families to go into quarantine, as per reports.

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Schools shut down

The new outbreak has also prompted schools to shut and a localised lockdown to be imposed, which was welcomed by Chancellor Angela Merkel. The German leader had advocated lockdown restrictions for a longer duration of time but had eased them following the pressures from regional premiers.

Germany started loosening its coronavirus restrictions in late April and has largely kept infection rates low, though local outbreaks linked to slaughterhouses, church services, and a restaurant among others have caused some concern. There have been several outbreaks at German slaughterhouses in recent weeks, prompting the government to impose stricter safety rules for the industry and ban the practice of using sub-contractors.

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Image Credits: AP