Corona infected people in Bavaria only have to be in isolation for five days from this Wednesday (April 13th) – but these five days are mandatory, not voluntary. A final free test is not necessary. However, the prerequisite is a symptom-free period of at least 48 hours. This was announced by Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) on Tuesday (April 12, 2022). In addition, the quarantine for close contacts is completely eliminated.
In case of existing symptoms, infected people must remain in isolation until they have disappeared for 48 hours, but a maximum of 10 days. The correspondingly changed general decree applies from midnight.
Bavaria wants to adapt the corona strategy to the current situation
“Isolation is still mandatory – a corona infection is not a private matter,” said Holetschek. But Bavaria is continuing to develop its corona strategy and adapting it to the current situation.
“The acute respiratory infection season is coming to an end, the infection pressure is falling and the hospital burden is stable,” he said. “Therefore, we think it is more than reasonable to reduce the isolation order to five days and to lift the quarantine for close contacts.” In addition, this procedure corresponds to the considerations of the Robert Koch Institute, which recently even considered voluntary self-isolation to be permissible. “And a five-day isolation has also been established internationally.”
The President of the State Office for Health and Food Safety, Christian Weidner, said: “If there are still acute symptoms such as fever or cough after five days, contagion can still be assumed. If the symptoms subside, it is necessary from a technical point of view to wait another 48 hours wait until the isolation can finally be ended.”
But there are exceptions to the easing
However, there are also exceptions: According to Holetschek, anyone who works in clinics or nursing homes, for example, can only work again after the end of isolation if a negative test result is presented, either a negative antigen test or a PCR test with a Ct value over 30 “This is how we ensure protection,” said the minister. For all other citizens, a final test is no longer necessary. “Nevertheless, we appeal to people to behave responsibly. That means we therefore recommend wearing a mask for a while after the end of isolation and reducing contacts,” he added.
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Even if the quarantine for close contacts who are not vaccinated or not recovered is completely eliminated, Holetschek emphasized: “Of course we continue to ask those who are infected to inform their close contacts about their infection. We also recommend close contacts to reduce contacts and in the Working from home if possible and voluntarily testing yourself for five days.”
red/dpa