Health

Berlin fetish club turns to testing, offers roadmap to reopening

Berlin, Dec 9 (efe-epa).- Owners of the Berlin nightclub Kitkat, which has started offering rapid Covid-19 tests after the notorious fetish club was forced to close due to the pandemic, hope that its initiative can provide a formula for parties and clubs in the coming year: providing a negative test before being allowed inside to dance.

Through the program, the founder of the premises, Kirsten Krüger, was looking to satisfy a “social responsibility” that the establishment has towards the city, but also to improve the chances of dance music clubs – a lifeblood of the German capital – being able to reopen in the foreseeable future.

“Kirsten had Covid herself and it was difficult for her to find a place in Berlin to take the test. So she looked for a way to offer one at a reasonable price for everyone, as well as to get some extra income for her staff”, a spokesperson for the club, Lothar, tells Efe.

The management at Kitkat is optimistic that this could be the way forward for other Berlin nightlife venues in the coming year, although they hope that rapid PCR tests will be more modest so that the customer can also afford the entrance fee to the club.

“People are paying 24.90 euros at the moment and we think it will soon be much cheaper because the price of the tests will go down and everyone will be able to buy it for about 10 euros. Therefore we hope that people will be able to take the test, show it at the entrance and then get into the club,” says the organizer and head of logistics for the testing team, Andreas Hausen.

Those managing the venue say that since December 4 more than 900 people have already taken the rapid test provided at the entrance under the supervision of a doctor, with 5 percent testing positive.

“I am sure that when Christmas approaches there will be even more people than now,” says Andreas, who invites everyone to come to the club because he believes they are doing “social work” for the city of Berlin, which is known the world over for its many nightclubs, many of them dedicated to techno music.

But their hope could be dampened by the news on Wednesday that Germany reported a record 590 deaths in a single day, while the rate of new infections remains well above 20,000 each day. EFE-EPA

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