Status: 15.11.2022 6:35 p.m
As of this Wednesday, people infected with corona will no longer have to go into isolation in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. However, those who are ill must continue to adhere to protective measures. Other states plan to follow soon.
From Wednesday, people infected with corona in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg will no longer have to isolate themselves. “Instead of the obligation to isolate, there are mandatory protective measures for those who have tested positive,” said Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU). From now on, a mask requirement as well as entry and activity bans, for example in medical and nursing facilities, will apply to them.
In neighboring Baden-Württemberg, infected people will in future be required to wear a mask for five days outside their own home, as the Ministry of Health in Stuttgart announced. “The lifting of the obligation to separate is currently justifiable from an infectious disease point of view,” said Baden-Württemberg’s Health Minister Manne Lucha (Greens). “Basically, anyone who is ill and has symptoms should stay at home as before and take sick leave,” the minister continued.
Time for elimination in Hesse still unclear
Together with Bavaria, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein, Baden-Württemberg announced last Friday that it would lift the general obligation to isolate people who tested positive. Other federal states recently thought about it, others rejected such a step.
In Hesse, the exact time for this step is still open. A new ordinance is necessary for implementation, said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Social Affairs in Wiesbaden on request. “The details and thus also the timing are currently being discussed in the state government.” In Schleswig-Holstein, the obligation to isolate will probably no longer apply on Thursday.
Lauterbach considers repeal “irresponsible”
The head of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, also considers the end of the obligation to isolate people infected with corona to be “medically justifiable” in view of the declining number of infections and the predominantly mild course of the disease. This is also shown by the experience of other European countries that have already taken this step, he told the “Rheinische Post”.
Clear criticism of the procedure came from Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD). He considers the lifting of the isolation requirement to be “irresponsible”. Vulnerable groups would be “completely disregarded,” the minsiter told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. For many of them, a corona infection could be life-threatening.