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Fast test, fast money - Berlin s corona testing boom
Private rapid test centres are making up to €25,000 turnover per day, but not sending results to health authorities. Politicians are demanding more regulation.
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Photo: dpaCorona quick test centres are booming, like the one at KitkatClub.
Berlin - The boom times are back! Back in the mid-19th century factories sprang up overnight across the city. This time around it s rapid corona test centres opening up in cafés, galleries, theatres, clubs, even in churches.
Which is great if you need to get a quick test.
But not everyone s happy. Berlin s public health officials and politicians speak of uncontrolled growth and are demanding tighter regulation. No city authority currently knows how many centres are actually out there. And they warn that monitoring by district authorities is impossible.
German archive documents pandemic for posterity
Christmas without collections
Fundraising will be a big problem this year for anyone trying to do it face-to-face: There are no benefit concerts and only a handful of people at Christmas church services. We calculate that donations from Christmas collections, which make up half our income, will decrease by several million euros, estimates Michael Heinz, director of Adveniat, a German Catholic relief organization which works in Latin America.
The need grows
At the same time, the need for donations and voluntary work is now extraordinarily high. In the past eight months, many of our project partners have approached us saying they need medicines, oxygen tanks, toiletries and even groceries, Heinz reports. In response, the organization carried out 427 coronavirus emergency projects, worth €7.3 million euros ($8.9 million).
Coronavirus pastoral care: Between Christmas spirit and end-of-life care
Clergy can bring comfort to the sick and dying, even in hospital COVID wards. One of them is Catholic priest Franz Eisenmann, from a small village in Bavaria.
Franz Eisenmann puts on a gown and ties it at his waist, then a protective plastic cover at the front, which a helper ties up behind his back. A hood, Perspex glasses, a FFP2 virus-filtering mask over his nose and mouth. And gloves. Two pairs of gloves, one over the other, the 55-year-old says.
He calmly describes the preparation it takes before he is allowed to step through the airlock and enter the COVID-19 ward of the hospital in Mühldorf am Inn.
German President Steinmeier s Christmas message of hope, solidarity
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier believes we have overcome the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. Solidarity has grown stronger through the crisis, the president said in his Christmas address to the nation. When can I live my dreams again? This sigh of exasperation, my fellow Germans, is one of the thousands of personal messages I received from all parts of our country.
That is how the German president began his traditional Christmas message to the nation. There has rarely been a year when the main topic of the address has been so clear and all-consuming from the outset. In previous years, the head of state usually addressed various social issues at Christmas but this time, his speech deals almost exclusively with the coronavirus pandemic.