The chaos surrounding the recovered status continues
How did the renewed change in the recovered status come about? RKI boss Lothar Wieler and Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach
Source: Getty Images
The RKI has once again changed the rules on the recovered status. Now an official distinction is made between vaccinated and unvaccinated corona infected people. However, the pharmacies continue to issue all certificates for 180 days.
EExactly one month ago, an update on the website of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) ensured that citizens who had recently recovered from Covid-19 lost their recovered status. This has been valid for three months since then – instead of six as before. This was made possible by a change in the Corona Protection Ordinance, according to which the RKI and the Paul Ehrlich Institute will in future provide information on their websites about how long the vaccination and convalescent status should be valid.
Because of the procedure, there was great anger and sharp criticism of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) – and the latest development again has the potential to become a controversial issue. The reason is another homepage update, which is now causing chaos in Germany’s pharmacies, among other things: Accordingly, the RKI has decided that recovered people who had previously been vaccinated can continue to enjoy a six-month recovered status.
the Justification of the RKI for the change states that “the scientific evidence to date indicates that unvaccinated people who have been infected with the delta variant or an earlier virus variant have reduced and even more limited protection against SARS-CoV-2 compared to reinfection with the delta variant -Have infection with the omicron variant”. The RKI appeals to this three British investigations.
Neither the Ministry of Health nor the RKI actively communicated this – citizens came across the change when they visited the official website.
The new situation is now causing problems in pharmacies. After the first RKI update in mid-January, the certificates for those who had recovered had been changed to a validity period of 90 days. This decision has now been independently revised again, according to the German Pharmacists’ Association (DAV). In the DAV portal, there is now an extension to 180 days.
The reason: like the “Pharmaceutical Newspaper“ reported, the pharmacies cannot distinguish between 90 and 180 days due to a lack of technical feasibility. Ergo: Every citizen gets – whether vaccinated or not – after a positive PCR test the recovered status for a period of 180 days. This in turn corresponds to the EU requirements anyway.
The matter should also be on the agenda at the Prime Ministers’ Conference (MPK) on Wednesday. The draft resolution stated that the delegation to the RKI and PEI would no longer apply in the case of recovered and vaccination status. In future, citizens would no longer be informed about currently applicable fundamental rights on the websites of the authorities. Just: by whom then?
Legally highly controversial procedure
So far it is unclear whether the federal government should adopt the relevant rules again – or Lauterbach’s ministry alone. The fact is: the actions of politicians and authorities are highly controversial from a legal point of view. In the past few days, several administrative courts have ruled in favor of citizens who had complained about the reduction of the convalescent status and classified the procedure as unconstitutional.
One way out of this dilemma for those in government could be the end of all far-reaching measures on March 20th. Then the state classification of citizens as recovered and/or vaccinated could be a thing of the past.