Friday November 12th 2021
Also for vaccinated and convalescent people
Corona rapid tests are free again
Originally, chargeable corona tests were intended to motivate critics to vaccinate. But the vaccination campaign is running slowly, while the nationwide seven-day incidence is increasing daily. As of today, everyone can pick up a free Corona test every week.
From November 13th, people in Germany will again be entitled to at least one free corona test per week. This is regulated by the new test ordinance that Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn of the CDU has just signed, according to his ministry. The right to a rapid antigen test also applies to people who have been vaccinated or have recovered.
Spahn expects that the options for free testing will gradually be increasingly available again from the beginning of next week. With the new regulation, existing test centers can start their work, and the federal states can commission the establishment of additional centers. The previous free tests expired on October 10th. With the end of reimbursement, there was also hope that more people would get vaccinated. Nevertheless, the vaccination campaign continues to be rather slow.
Increased testing is now also being used because people who have been vaccinated are also infected with the coronavirus. On Friday, Spahn proposed a “2G plus regulation” for events. This means that participants must either be vaccinated or have recovered and also have themselves tested.
Seven-day incidence peaked
The nationwide seven-day incidence has risen again and has peaked for the fifth day in a row. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) stated the number of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week in the morning as 263.7. Since Monday there had been records in the daily incidences reported by the RKI. On Thursday the value was 249.1. A week ago the value was 169.9 (previous month: 65.8).
The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days – the most important parameter for a possible tightening of the corona restrictions – was given by the RKI on Thursday at 4.65 (Wednesday: 4.61). With the indicator it must be taken into account that hospital admissions are sometimes reported with delay. A nationwide threshold value from when the situation can be viewed critically is not provided for the incidence of hospitalization, among other things because of large regional differences. The previous high was around 15.5 around Christmas time.