Monitoring of critical infrastructure is established

Franziska Giffey, Governing Mayor of Berlin.

The Berlin Senate wants to take a closer look at the extent to which the work of the police, fire department, electricity or water works is being affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Insight into individual areas of the situation

"That's why we decided to establish a new monitoring system for the functioning of the critical infrastructure," Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) said on Tuesday (Jan. 18, 2022) after a Senate meeting. "This means that we will demand a regular situation report from the individual areas detailing their functional capability."

Traffic light system to be implemented

Similar to the Senate's Coronvirus warning light, which assesses the general pandemic situation, a traffic light system will illustrate the development in the corresponding fields of work in the face of rising infection figures. "Green means no impairment in regular operations," said Giffey. Yellow stands for minor, red for significant or critical impairments. Giffey stressed the importance of a regular assessment of the situation.

Only a few impairments at present

According to the Governing Mayor, the energy sector, transport and traffic including S-Bahn and the BVG, city cleaning, the health sector, water supply, food trade, the police, the fire department, ambulance services and the judiciary sector will be taken into account. "In addition, the situation of teachers and educators will be assessed as well." At present, there is no reason for Giffey to be overly concerned: "We have a low level of impairment in large parts of the critical infrastructure," she said. "Nevertheless, we are monitoring things very closely."