Accommodation on the Venusberg 19 refugees isolated in youth hostel in Bonn after Corona outbreak
Bonn · Twelve refugees who were transferred from the state accommodation in Sankt Augustin to Bonn have now also tested positive for the corona virus. They are currently in quarantine with other residents.
The twelve refugees infected with the coronavirus in the youth hostel on Venusberg are under quarantine, as are seven other residents. They had recently been transferred from the refugee accommodation in Sankt Augustin to the Venusberg, said Dennis Heidel, spokesman for the Cologne district government. In Sankt Augustin they had still been tested negative for the virus but after one of them had shown symptoms, the entire group was tested again.
A further 39 refugees from Sankt Augustin were transferred to accommodation in Schleiden in the district of Euskirchen, the district government of Cologne further announced. They had been tested negative before the move. In 18 of them, the virus was then detected over the weekend. They had had no contact with other residents in Schleiden.
Since the new residents on the Venusberg had initially been separate and without contact to other residents for safety reasons, the other residents were not in quarantine. A total of 162 people currently live in the youth hostel. The question of whether these new residents were tested before moving in was not answered by the district government on Monday.
As of this month, the authority has temporarily rented the youth hostel for corona risk groups and their relatives in order to ease the infection situation for the state shelter accommodation. So far they have come from accommodation in Cologne, Kerpen and Euskirchen. The district government has not been able to clarify why they moved in from Sankt Augustin. The places of assignment had not been set in stone, Heidel said.
The infected residents on the Venusberg are doing well. They showed no symptoms of illness and are in isolation. The food was brought to the room. In principle, all residents lived in single, double and family rooms, each with their own sanitary facilities. The rooms were between 14 and 18 square metres in size. The district government allotted the use of common rooms on a time schedule.
According to the district government, there are currently no new positive Covid-19 cases in the state shelter in Sankt Augustin. Of the 261 people, 163 had tested positive. In the Ermekeilkilkaserne in Bonn, 50 residents were also infected at times.
Last week, the district government had lifted a curfew there. From the end of May, the authorities will use a youth hostel in Bad Honnef for extra accommodation.
Original text: Philipp Königs
Translation: Mareike Graepel
