Beginning Wednesday, December 8th, dancing in Berlin clubs will be banned.
As COVID-19 cases in Germany continue to rise at an alarming rate, officials announced that clubs may remain open but that attendees cannot dance in them. The curious restriction resulted from ongoing legal proceedings with the German federal government. While they intend to outright close clubs, they currently cannot as such a restriction requires action from parliament. Due to the wording of the Infection Protection Act, however, they can ban dancing. Government officials have the power to enforce the ban for one week, at which point discussions about closing clubs will begin.
Restaurants and bars will remain open as well, but with capacity and social distancing restrictions that also go into place on Wednesday.
The announcement comes amid a ruling that clubs must close in states where COVID-19 infections exceed more than 350 cases per 100,000 citizens. Clubs in the German state of Bavaria recently underwent a three-week lockdown. In Berlin, the current rate is around 361 infections per 100,000 citizens.
As of December 6th, Germany as a whole has seen 18,322 new cases with a seven-day average of 52,054 cases. About 72% of German citizens have received one vaccination, while 69% are fully vaccinated against infection.
