Berlin’s native authorities had gladly provided the roughly 40,000 euros to cowl the prices of all of the P.C.R. exams for this experiment, mentioned Klaus Lederer, a politician with the left-wing Die Linke celebration and Berlin’s present state minister for tradition, as a result of “membership tradition is part of Berlin tradition.”
Talking with reporters crammed right into a doorway exterior the Metropol nightclub to shelter from a downpour on the pilot challenge’s first night time, Mr. Lederer additionally famous that conserving shuttered golf equipment afloat was costing taxpayers a hefty sum.
Dr. Frank Heppner, a professor and researcher at Charité who was with Mr. Lederer, mentioned that P.C.R. exams had been needed for the research as a result of fast antigen exams are “leaky and never excellent.”
“It’s important to use the perfect, most delicate device to filter out potential positives,” he mentioned.
The pilot challenge mirrored different current experiments in Germany, together with testing protocols at Berlin classical concert venues this previous spring and an digital music competition exterior town over the summer time.
“We all know after a really lengthy time period of lockdown that now we have extreme collateral results on the society that you must additionally usher in. You can not simply deal with the virus and the direct penalties,” Dr. Heppner mentioned. “The oblique penalties on a social, on a psychological and an financial stage are additionally issues you must weigh.”
In the meanwhile, the membership research has been swept apart by the membership reopenings. However Lutz Leichsenring, the spokesman for the Membership Fee, mentioned the P.C.R. testing technique stays a possible choice rather than new shutdowns or tighter restrictions if infections spike this fall. Berlin’s golf equipment had lined up lab companions, in August, to supply membership particular 15 euro P.C.R. exams — a considerable sum in a metropolis the place door charges hardly ever high 20 euros, however with outcomes assured inside 4 hours.
One other lockdown could be a “worst-case state of affairs that might kill a number of jobs,” Mr. Leichsenring mentioned. However the research of quick-turnaround P.C.R. exams may result in options “so we will at the least be sure that individuals who go to golf equipment are protected,” he mentioned.
Alex Marshall contributed reporting.
