Status: 04/28/2022 10:54 p.m
The prescribed isolation for corona infected people should only last five days in the future. This was decided by the federal and state health ministers during their deliberations.
The health ministers of the federal and state governments want to uniformly re-regulate the corona isolation for infected people. Essentially, it is about reducing the isolation period for those who have been proven to be positive to five days, the department heads explained after a joint video conference.
Increasing immunity, milder courses
The Federal Ministry of Health announced that the recommendation of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) regarding the duration of isolation and quarantine should be adjusted at the beginning of next week. “Essentially, it is about reducing the isolation period for those who have been proven to be positive to five days.” The countries want to revise their isolation and quarantine regulations accordingly.
The health ministers justify the step with increasing immunity in the population and milder disease progression with the omicron variant. It is gratifying that “all states have agreed on a uniform approach based on the scientific expertise of the RKI,” explained Saxony-Anhalt’s Health Minister Petra Grimm-Benne (SPD).
Several federal states are already cutting back
Bavaria and Saxony, among others, had already reduced the previous mandatory isolation of infected people from ten days to five days if those affected had no symptoms for 48 hours. In most countries, the regulation still applies that the isolation for corona infected people can be ended after seven days by free testing. Otherwise the isolation ends after ten days.
The quarantine and isolation rules have been discussed again and again for a long time. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach and the federal states originally wanted the mandatory isolation to expire on May 1st and rely on it being voluntary, which met with a lot of criticism. Lauterbach subsequently backed away from the project.
Medical associations such as the Marburger Bund recently advocated uniform rules. Lifting the isolation after five days only makes sense if the test result is negative and you are symptom-free for 48 hours, explained the chairwoman of the Marburger Bund doctors’ union, Susanne Johna, to the newspapers of the Funke media group.