The Federal Minister of Health no longer considers the current isolation and quarantine rules to be practicable.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The Netherlands are lifting the quarantine obligation, Switzerland is taking this step in April – and Germany also wants to relax most of the rules in the future. This is based on a draft regulation by the Federal Ministry of Health and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which is available to the Handelsblatt and was sent to the federal states on Wednesday.
- The duration for the isolation of infected people and the quarantine of contact persons should therefore be reduced from ten to five days.
- A formal order for isolation or quarantine by the health department, which often no longer takes place, should be omitted.
- This means: A “strict” isolation or quarantine, as it says in the draft, should no longer be specified.
- It should be recommended to voluntarily reduce contacts and – starting after five days – to carry out repeated tests or self-tests.
- These rules also apply to students and children in day-care centers.
- Exceptions apply to medical staff. Isolation can only be ended if there have been no symptoms for 48 hours. In addition, a negative test is required, which was carried out no earlier than the fifth day after the infection was detected.
However, the draft also provides for tightening for vaccinated people as well as schoolchildren and children in day-care centers.
- Those who have been boosted, fully vaccinated recovered people and people who were infected or fully vaccinated no more than three months ago do not have to be in quarantine. These exceptions will no longer apply in the future. This also means that the new quarantine rules should also apply to these people.
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So far, there have also been exceptions to the quarantine for schoolchildren and children in daycare centers, in whose facilities tests are carried out regularly and there is a mask requirement. These exceptions are no longer applicable.
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Also criticism of Karl Lauterbach’s quarantine proposal
Criticism of the proposal comes from the health policy spokesman for the Union, Tino Sorge (CDU). “It is questionable if the advantages for vaccinated or recovered contact persons should now be eliminated,” he told the Handelsblatt. “Until now, in many cases they were exempt from quarantine because the risk in such constellations was considered low.” This assessment is unlikely to have changed.
Overall, however, reducing the quarantine and isolation period to five days “makes sense”. It is right to rely more on people’s personal responsibility. “In most cases, anyone who feels sick stays at home without an official order and avoids contacts,” said Sorge.
>>Read here: Home office, mask requirement, 3G: Which measures still apply now – and which don’t
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) said in Berlin on Wednesday that the requirements for quarantine or isolation are not really practicable in the current wave. The point is to solve this pragmatically.
New quarantine rules are expected to come into effect next week
The aim is to be able to work with a new regulation in the next week. In addition, the health authorities should be relieved. The background is also to avoid staff shortages, especially in important care areas, in view of the many infections.
The head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, praised the initiative. “The omicron wave brings with it a lot of infections, but most of them are mild,” he told the Handelsblatt. “Against this background, the proposal comes at the right time.” Otherwise there would be a risk that important infrastructure in Germany would be paralyzed.
More: Relaxation of the corona rules: Where the mask requirement will still apply in the future