The corona tests are now an integral part of everyday life in Bavarian schools. But not for long: At the end of April, the obligation to test will expire for both schools and daycare centers. Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) announced this after the cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Accordingly, this obligation should come to an end together with the nationwide end of the quarantine obligation. “It doesn’t make any sense to continue testing if isolation regulations are lifted,” said Holetschek. According to the federal government, the obligation to do so should fall on May 1st. In the event of infections or contacts, there should only be a recommendation to isolate yourself for five days.
School children in Bavaria currently have to take tests several times a week in order to attend compulsory face-to-face classes. Logistically complex PCR pool test systems have been set up in elementary schools and, more recently, in fifth and sixth grades; the rest is done using rapid tests. The benefit was recently disputed, the additional security expensive: Between February and July 2021, the state of Bavaria spent around 416 million euros on the quick tests alone. However, the daycare centers still have the opportunity to do pool tests with the children on a voluntary basis until the end of August, it said; according to a funding guideline of the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The state government rates the current corona situation as stable with a downward trend, especially when looking at the occupancy of the intensive care beds and the so-called R value, which stands for the dynamics of the infection process and is currently 0.79. Over one, i.e. if one person infects more than one other, this is called exponential growth. In principle, however, he is concerned about the autumn in view of the latest federal decisions, said Holetschek. “Hardly any measures left, isolation in personal responsibility, a failure of the compulsory vaccination with an announcement” – one must now see how “the tools of the trade can be used together”. The minister wants to discuss with experts what preparations can already be made for potential scenarios in the autumn.