Status: 11/11/2022 11:46 am
The number of corona infections is falling and the basic immunity in the population is 90 percent – on this basis, four federal states are now lifting the quarantine. However, there are recommendations for anyone who is ill.
Four federal states have agreed to abolish the obligation to isolate people infected with corona on November 16th. It is Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein, as announced by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Health in Stuttgart.
In these countries, new regulations should come into force “soon”, the details are currently being worked out. The general obligation to isolate for people who have tested positive should therefore be lifted. “In their place, the federal states will introduce adapted, mandatory protective measures such as a limited obligation to wear masks for people who have tested positive, as well as urgent recommendations,” says the message from Stuttgart.
More responsibility again
“We are heralding a new phase in dealing with the pandemic,” said Baden-Württemberg’s Health Minister Manne Lucha (Greens). “It’s time to give people more personal responsibility again.”
According to the information from Stuttgart, the federal states refer “among other things to experiences from neighboring countries such as Austria, where there have been protective measures replacing isolation since the summer of 2022”. No negative findings are known from these countries.
agreement on recommendations
“Declining numbers of infections, effective vaccinations, basic immunity within the population of more than 90 percent, generally no severe courses of the disease and effective antiviral drugs justify taking this step promptly from the point of view of the federal states.”
According to the communication, the countries agreed on joint recommendations as the basis for their new regulations. These stipulate, for example, that those who have tested positive must wear a mask outside their own home – except outdoors when a minimum distance of 1.5 meters can be maintained. It is therefore also planned that medical and nursing facilities that have tested positive are not allowed to enter as visitors.
Letter to Lauterbach
The four federal states, which have now jointly announced the lifting of the obligation to isolate, had asked Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) in a joint letter at the end of September to ensure that the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) changed its isolation recommendations for people infected with corona. Lauterbach had immediately rejected this at the time.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann had already pointed out that the federal states can override the RKI recommendation.
RKI: End of self-isolation after negative test
The RKI recommends that the federal states order five days of isolation for infected people. An urgent recommendation is made not to end self-isolation until a (self-)test is negative. Health and care workers are said to have been symptom-free 48 hours before the test was taken