The city’s Winterlights festival over the weekend became a victim of its own success as visitors faced long queues to enter under the CovidCheck regime.

Each of the market sites features an entrance for people who need to have their certificate scanned and those who already have a bracelet for that day. The colour of the bracelets changes to avoid people gaining entrance with a previous days’ certificate.

To help spread out the masses, the city next weekend is planning on setting up an additional scanning point on Place Guillaume II, the Knuedler, where visitors can get a bracelet for the different markets in Place de la Constitution, Place d’Armes, Place de Paris, the Kinnekswiss park and the children’s market in the Old Athenée courtyard on Rue Notre Dame that opens on 1 December.

Second test centre

The City of Luxembourg is also planning on opening a second test centre in the capital, mayor Lydie Polder (DP) said on Tuesday.

The city offers vouchers to get a certified rapid antigen test for €5 at its test centre in Grand-Rue or a partner pharmacy. Without the voucher, tests cost €15 at the commune test centre.

The municipality launched the initiative after the government made CovidCheck mandatory for all hospitality businesses with the voucher scheme set to continue through December.

Polfer couldn’t yet say where the test centre would be located but said long lines outside the Grand-Rue location were blocking the street for pedestrians and entrances to neighbouring shops.

A drop-in vaccination centre on 70 Grand-Rue meanwhile is proving popular, Polfer said. More than 70 people got a coronavirus vaccine jab on Saturday with that number up to 110 on Monday.

The centre is open Monday to Saturday from 11am to 6pm.