Status: 01/13/2022 11:49 a.m.
At the latest when the rules for free testing from quarantine change, the laboratories will no longer be able to keep up with the evaluation of the PCR tests. Now there are demands for prioritization.
The chairman of the accredited laboratories in medicine, Michael Müller, estimates that the new quarantine rules will soon bring even more work to the laboratories. Because if you have a negative PCR test after seven days, you can leave a quarantine earlier in the future. He expects a rush – this would inevitably have to be met by the laboratories unprepared, so Müller in the “Rheinische Post”. The fact that laboratories reach their capacity limit is critical for sick people and hospitals.
Müller criticizes that neither the federal government nor the federal states have given a forecast of how many PCR tests the laboratories will have to prepare for.
Priority for critical infrastructure
Meanwhile, there are increasing voices that insist on prioritization in the PCR tests. The head of the German government’s Corona crisis team, Bundeswehr General Carsten Breuer, spoke out in favor of such a prioritization in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Priority should be given to those working in the critical infrastructure – such as policewomen, firefighters, nurses or supermarket saleswomen:
As with all scarce resources, we will certainly have to bundle capacities where necessary. This also applies to tests.
The Green health expert Janosch Dahmen also supports the prioritization. In addition to the critical infrastructure, PCR tests would also have to be kept available for important medical diagnostics of seriously ill patients. This could lead to delays in individual cases, for example when testing free. Only when the sharply rising corona numbers are under control again will the situation improve again.