The coronavirus is an insidious pathogen. Not only is it quite contagious, it can also be transmitted by people who don’t even realize they’ve caught it. A key means of containing the pandemic is therefore to temporarily isolate those infected with Covid-19 and to try to find as many of those who have had closer contact with them as possible. You then have to be in quarantine. An overview of the most important questions, how this is handled in Bavaria and which rules apply – they were relaxed in mid-April for vaccinated and formerly corona patients and at the beginning of September for school children.
Who has to be in quarantine?
In principle, everyone who has had close contact with a Covid 19 patient (“close contact persons”) must be in quarantine – but this does not apply to fully vaccinated persons and people who have survived a corona infection themselves in the past six months (see below ). Those who have reasonable grounds to suspect that they have been infected with the coronavirus (suspects) must also be quarantined. And of course everyone for whom a PCR test has confirmed an infection – then officially one does not speak of quarantine, but of isolation.
What does “close contact person” mean?
For every person with corona, the health department determines who they have had close contact with and thus an increased risk of infection. After the Robert Koch Institute criteria is this the case, for example, if you spoke to each other without a mask (less than one and a half meters away) or stood close to each other for more than ten minutes without a mask or sat together for more than ten minutes in a poorly ventilated room. The local health department checks and decides individually.
What are the quarantine rules?
Anyone who is in quarantine or isolation must stay in their home and are not allowed to receive visitors. He has to stay away from his flatmates, including family members, so if possible stay in his own room and not eat with them. There are only two exceptions to when he can leave his apartment: either alone in his own garden, on the terrace or balcony or on the way to a doctor or the test center because a corona test has been ordered. Contact persons must also measure their body temperature twice a day and record possible symptoms of illness in a diary. If you show signs of corona disease, you must call the health department; this also applies to suspects if their health deteriorates. Anyone who does not adhere to the regulations can be fined.
All quarantine rules can be found in this one General decree of the Ministry of Health.
How long does a quarantine last?
Contact persons: No earlier than 14 days after the last meeting with the Covid patient, the respective contact person must for a PCR test or a rapid antigen test; if it turns out negative, the quarantine is ended. This compulsory test has only been in effect since the end of February. The so-called free testing is no longer available, i.e. the possibility of being free again after ten days with a negative test result. The Ministry of Health justified this tightening in February with the spread of the more dangerous, because more contagious, coronavirus mutants. There is one exception for schoolchildren: They can test themselves after just five days.
Suspects: Suspected persons are people who either show symptoms typical of the corona, who have had a PCR test carried out for this reason – voluntarily or by order of the health department – and who are now waiting for the result. Or people who have done a self-test that turned out positive and who therefore now have a conventional corona test (PCR) done. With them, the quarantine ends the moment a negative test result is received. And finally, suspects are those who took part in a pool test that turned out positive – they have to be in quarantine until their individual PCR test turns out negative. (In the future there will be pool tests in primary schools in particular.)
Family members or roommates of a Covid 19 patient: Anyone who lives with someone who has Corona has to be in quarantine for 14 days. The period begins on the day on which the corona patient first showed symptoms or tested positive for the pathogen. This deadline also remains if other family members or roommates fall ill with Corona in the meantime. As with the contact persons, there is an obligation to test: The quarantine is only ended when a negative corona test is present.
Covid-19 sufferers: Anyone who tested positive in a rapid test (for example at the doctor or in a pharmacy) can go back into the wild if the subsequent PCR test is negative. However, if you have been tested positive in a PCR test and you do not show any symptoms, the isolation ends 14 days after the positive corona test; If you show symptoms, then 14 days after they first appear and only if you have been symptom-free for at least 48 hours. That must be determined by the health department. In any case, you have to be tested for Corona at the end of the 14 days – the quarantine only ends if the result is negative. There is one exception for fully vaccinated people who still have a positive PCR test: As long as they do not develop symptoms of the disease, the health department can release them from quarantine after five days if another PCR test is negative.
Do people who have already had Corona also have to be quarantined?
If the illness was at least four weeks and no more than six months ago, you do not have to be in quarantine as a close contact. Otherwise, yes. This quarantine exception does not apply to those affected who have had contact with a person who has contracted one of the more dangerous virus mutants.
Do vaccinated persons also have to be in quarantine as contact persons?
Not since April 15, 2021. But only if you have had two vaccinations and if the second was at least 15 days ago. Or if you have already had Corona and therefore only received one dose of vaccine. It does not matter which preparation was given to them. Because according to the current state of knowledge, the risk of transmission is significantly lower in people who have been vaccinated. The health department can also order a quarantine for vaccinated persons if they have had contact with a person who has contracted one of the more dangerous virus mutants.
What applies to school classes and daycare centers?
Here, too, the health department checks in each individual case who has had close contact with a corona patient and therefore has to be in quarantine. So it depends, for example, on the conditions in the classroom. It was different in schools until the end of February: if a corona case occurred, the whole class was automatically quarantined home. This so-called cohort isolation has been abolished. In the case of crèche and kindergarten children, the health department has always checked individually – and it stays that way. Here, however, the contact between the children is usually much closer anyway. What has been new since the beginning of September: If a schoolchild has to be in quarantine as a close contact, it can be free-tested after just five days.