Covid 19 coronavirus: Germany issues lockdown rules for eating ice cream

A little boy with a mouth guard is eating an ice cream at the market in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Photo / Getty Images

One German region has responded to the challenge of lifting the coronavirus lockdown by issuing new regulations on eating ice cream in public.

While governments across Europe debate how to restart the economy, the state of Lower Saxony is one step ahead.

Customers buying an ice cream are allowed one lick in the shop to prevent it dripping on their clothes, before retreating to a safe distance to enjoy the rest, the regional government announced on Monday.

Ice cream shops are among thousands of businesses to reopen for the first time in a month as Germany begins to lift its lockdown this week.

As with restaurants and cafes, eating on the premises remains strictly forbidden and customers are not allowed to tuck in until they are at least 50 metres.

But with spring temperatures already soaring above 20C (68F), the regional government has ordered a special exemption to prevent ice cream melting.

"A pragmatic approach is permitted when applying the regulation in the case of ice cream," the state's official website notes in starchily legal German.

"An initial swift lick of a scoop while rapidly proceeding away from the ice cream parlour can be permitted in order to prevent ice cream from dripping onto clothing or the floor," it says. "However, the safe limit of 50 metres applies to the consumption of the remaining ice cream."

The relaxing of the rules was ridiculed on social media. "Here in Lower Saxony the virus stays within a 50 metre radius of ice cream parlours: you can only lick your ice cream once so that nothing drips & then you have to run 50m out of the 'danger zone', otherwise it's up to you ... Absolutely crazy," one Twitter user wrote.