Status: 11/22/2022 5:12 p.m
Rhineland-Palatinate is the fifth federal state to follow suit: from Saturday, people infected with corona will no longer have to go into isolation there – but will have to wear a mask in public. Lower Saxony, on the other hand, is extending the separation obligation.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, too, the obligation to isolate people infected with the corona virus will be abolished. Health Minister Clemens Hoch confirmed in Mainz that the previous regulation should expire at the weekend. “It is important that we learn to treat Corona as a normal disease,” he explained.
However, the pandemic is not over. As of Saturday, infected people were therefore obliged to wear a mask in public “unless they were traveling alone”. A visit to the catering trade, a fitness studio or other facilities in which a mask cannot be worn permanently or only with difficulty remains prohibited for those who have tested positive.
Four states had submitted
Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Schleswig-Holstein had previously lifted the minimum five-day isolation recommended by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
Hesse will follow this Wednesday. Instead of the obligation to isolate, the following rules apply there: Adults and children over the age of six who have tested positive are required to wear a mask outside their own home at least five days after the first positive test. In the open air, the mask can be taken off in compliance with the distance rules (1.5 meters). At the same time, it is urgently recommended to isolate yourself for five days in the event of an infection with symptoms and not to receive visitors, the state government said.
Lower Saxony extended
Lower Saxony, on the other hand, has extended the current isolation ordinance for people infected with corona until the end of January 2023. In the event of an infection, citizens must go into domestic isolation for at least five days. Immediately before the start of winter and possibly further imminent waves of infection, Lower Saxony will not take any unnecessary risks and will continue to maintain the few basic protective measures in force, said Health Minister Daniela Behrens in Hanover. “So the following still applies here: Anyone who is infected with Covid stays at home.”
In eleven of the 16 federal states, there is still an obligation to isolate people who are corona positive. So far, the countries have not been able to agree on a uniform approach.