FAQ
As of: 05.04.2022 5:46 p.m
Isolation and contact avoidance for infected people are only urgently recommended from May. What is planned, what will it bring? And what does that mean for sick leave? The most important questions and answers.
What is planned?
From May 1st, infected people are only strongly recommended to isolate themselves for five days and avoid contacts. It provides for an agreement between the federal and state governments, which Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced. There should no longer be an order from the health department. Contact persons of infected people are also strongly recommended to reduce contacts independently.
Infected people should test themselves after five days and keep contacts reduced until the test is negative. Contacts are advised daily self-tests.
The situation is different for employees in healthcare and nursing. In the future, there should be an ordered ban on activities in the event of infection. This should be able to end with a quick or PCR test at the earliest on the fifth day after the onset of symptoms.
How is it so far?
So far, isolation has been ordered for those who have been proven to be infected. It is usually carried out at home, only in the hospital if the course of the disease is severe.
Quarantine has been ordered for people who have not been proven to have the virus but who are suspected of being infected. These are mostly contact persons of sick people. Excluded from the quarantine are people with a booster vaccination, those who have been vaccinated twice after surviving an infection and people whose vaccination or infection was not more than three months ago.
Isolation and quarantine usually end after ten days. In both cases, those affected can test themselves free after seven days with a PCR test or a certified rapid antigen test.
How does Lauterbach justify the end of the separation obligation?
“This is all about restructuring the totally overburdened health authorities so that they can do the work that is most important now,” said Lauterbach. They should be freed from work that is no longer going well anyway.
Today, the health authorities would often notify the isolation or quarantine cases too late, explained Lauterbach. “The news comes with a long delay and it has more of an impact on the infection process.” The planned quarantine change has nothing to do with the question of relaxation and freedom.
According to Lauterbach, the goal is for health authorities to be able to concentrate on the central areas that affect particularly vulnerable groups. It is about prevention, isolation and quarantine for employees in clinics and care facilities.
Why are the health authorities overloaded?
The background is the current omicron wave with many, but mostly mild infections. The incidence is currently falling, but is still at 1394 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants.
According to a recent survey by the state development bank KfW, the burden of staff absences has also increased significantly in companies – due to illness and quarantine among the workforce and the absence of employees due to school and daycare closures.
What is the criticism of the plans?
“With this decision, many people get the message that you can continue to participate in public life even with a proven SARS-CoV-2 infection,” says immunologist Carsten Watzl. “This decision therefore goes in the wrong direction.”
The social association VdK accused the federal and state governments of “completely relying on the “principle of infection”. “The protection of risk groups apparently no longer plays any role in politics,” said VdK President Verena Bentele. The German Foundation for Patient Protection made a similar statement .
What does that mean for sick leave?
When it comes to sick leave, nothing changes, said Lauterbach. So far, this has nothing to do with ordering quarantine or isolation, but simply with the diagnosis. And this can be based on clinical symptoms, an antigen test or a PCR test.
However, the German Trade Union Confederation warned that employees are avoiding voluntary isolation for fear of financial losses. “If the health minister is serious about his ‘urgent isolation recommendation’, he must clarify how any loss of earnings due to voluntary isolation will be compensated for in the future,” said DGB board member Anja Piel.
Source: dpa