Berlin In view of the rapidly expanding Omikron variant, the federal and state health ministers want to shorten the quarantine period significantly. This emerges from a resolution of today’s meeting in which the ministers call on the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) to submit modified rules for the federal-state conference on Friday.
“Very high incidences are to be expected,” said the chairwoman of the conference of health ministers and minister in Saxony Anhalt, Petra Grimm-Benne (SPD), on Wednesday afternoon after the meeting. At the same time, however, studies have shown that the Omikron variant has a milder course than the Delta variant. “That is why we are thinking of adapting the regulation with regard to the new variant,” said Grimm-Benne.
- The decision distinguishes between quarantine for contact persons and isolation for infected people.
- The isolation of infected people should be ten days. For people without basic immunization, this can only be ended by means of a PCR test. Vaccinated persons can end this prematurely after seven days with a negative antigen test. So far, the isolation time has been 14 days.
- Personnel in critical areas such as hospitals, nursing homes, the police and fire brigade should be able to release themselves from isolation and quarantine using a PCR test after just five days.
- The quarantine should be seven days for symptom-free contacts. Unvaccinated people must then submit a negative rapid test, vaccinated and convalescent people should be given a negative rapid test.
- People with a third vaccination should be exempted from the quarantine obligation.
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Before the meeting, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had submitted proposals that differed in detail from the decision. Accordingly, fully vaccinated and convalescent people should also be exempted from quarantine for up to two months after the vaccination or illness. In addition, staff in the critical infrastructure should only be able to test themselves after seven days after an infection. In addition, Lauterbach proposed stronger quarantine reductions for children. How the quarantine rules will work in the future will only be decided at the federal-state meeting on Friday.
“Now it is important to ensure that the police, fire brigade, doctors and nurses, gas, water and electricity supplies, i.e. our critical infrastructure, remain able to work, even if many become infected or are contact persons for those infected,” said the Rhineland-Palatinate Palatine Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) the Handelsblatt. She expects from the Prime Minister’s Conference “that, on the basis of the experts’ assessment, we will examine options for shortening the quarantine and further options for free testing in order to be able to ensure the functionality of the critical infrastructure”.
Lauterbach justified the shortened quarantine with a shorter generation time for the Omikron variant. “The shortening is based on scientific findings,” emphasized Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach to the editorial network Germany. Studies have shown that the phase in which the virus spreads in the body and the phase in which a person is contagious are much shorter with Omikron. “So we can shorten the quarantine period to a certain extent without taking any risks,” said the SPD politician.
The shortening must also be geared towards the fact that “certain areas of the critical infrastructure could be required – in particular hospitals, care for the elderly as well as the police, fire brigade and the supply of water and electricity”. School and travel should also be considered.
A shortened quarantine must be possible, especially for asymptomatic infected people and contact persons, if our infrastructure is otherwise at risk. Confederation of German Employers’ Associations
The background to this is the fear of massive staff shortages, especially in the critical infrastructure. “The quarantine regulations must now be adapted as quickly as possible so that security of supply can be guaranteed at all times in the Omikron wave,” said the Federal Association of German Employers’ Associations (BDA). “A shortened quarantine must be possible, especially for asymptomatic infected people and contact persons, if our infrastructure is otherwise at risk.”
The fear of staff absences is not unfounded. In Great Britain, several clinics had to declare a disaster due to the rapidly increasing number of illnesses. At least six hospital foundations, some of which include several clinics, have decided to take this step. Hospitals declare a disaster when those responsible are of the opinion that they can no longer guarantee necessary treatments.
In Great Britain, the Omikron variant already accounts for the majority of all infections. In Germany, too, the federal government believes it will become the dominant variant in a few days. “We are currently assuming an Omikron share of 25 percent across Germany,” said a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health in Berlin on Wednesday. In some federal states, especially in northern Germany, Omikron is already dominant.
In addition, the number of cases is rising sharply nationwide. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 58,912 new cases on Wednesday. That is 18,869 more than a week ago when 40,043 positive tests were registered. However, the RKI still points out that the figures are less meaningful because of the holidays. The nationwide seven-day incidence rose significantly to 258.6 from 239.9 the previous day. The value indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants have been infected with the corona virus in the past seven days. 346 other people died from the virus.
Meanwhile, Israel has already begun giving people 60 and over and people with weakened immune systems a fourth injection to boost them again. Initial results have shown that the number of antibodies has quintupled afterwards, it said. That was “good, but not enough,” said the head of a study on the effectiveness of the fourth vaccination, Gili Regev. “We see a certain increase in antibodies, but the increase is not very impressive.”
With agency material.
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