The coronavirus test regulation, which expires on Friday this week, is to be extended again. However, not until April 7, as planned in a first draft by the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), but only until the end of February 2023. There was agreement with the Federal Ministry of Finance, the BMG said yesterday.
The “three-euro citizen tests” are to be abolished in this context – they would have accounted for only about five percent of the total number of citizen tests. However, people who want to or have to enter medical facilities would still be entitled to free tests.
The original draft of the Federal Ministry of Health provided for the conduct of the citizen tests to be extended in their current form up to and including April 7th. Only the remuneration for the service providers who carry it out should decrease – from 9.50 euros to 8 euros. According to information from Tagesspiegel Background, the BMG assumed costs of almost two billion euros.
The Budget Committee of the Bundestag still has to approve the release of the budget funds. Karsten Klein (FDP), his parliamentary group’s rapporteur for the BMG budget, made it clear yesterday that he had no objections to the release of the funds.
In the present draft for the new test ordinance, the ministry justifies the reduction in citizen tests with the current course of the pandemic. In the meantime, a “basic immunity” has built up in the population both through vaccinations and infections.
“It has also been shown that the omicron variant is associated with a lower severity of the disease. In this phase of the pandemic, the protection of population groups that continue to have an increased risk of serious illnesses remains a priority.
Citizen tests are no longer indicated with these signs, except for visitors and employees in medical facilities and those who have been proven to be infected who want to test their way out of isolation. However, in some federal states there is no longer an obligation to isolate, and others will probably follow suit soon.
Corona vaccinations from 2023 only at the family doctor
The BMG also announced yesterday that the Corona Vaccination Ordinance would be adjusted. Accordingly, from January 1st, vaccinations should only be carried out via general practitioners – payments to the federal states for the maintenance of vaccination infrastructures are therefore no longer necessary, according to the BMG.
In addition, it was announced that the facility-related vaccination requirement should no longer be extended from the point of view of the Federal Minister of Health. In view of the new, spreading BQ.1 virus variant, it can no longer be assumed that a vaccination will protect third parties from infection. The justification for the partial vaccination requirement is therefore obsolete.
In general, the BMG assumes that in April – i.e. after the current corona protection rules have expired – the measures should not be continued, at least not in the current framework. However, it is not yet clear whether Minister Lauterbach will commit to a complete end to the Corona legislation after April 7th. This must be coordinated within the traffic light groups in the spring of next year.
To home page
Source: Tagesspiegel
I have been working in the news website industry for over 4 years now, first as a reporter and then as an editor. I enjoy writing about politics news and am also an author. I try to cover a lot of different angles when it comes to my articles so that readers can get a well-rounded understanding of the story.
