BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is confident that the coalition can quickly agree on changes to the Infection Protection Act. Work is already underway on six points of his seven-point plan, and negotiations will begin on the subject of the mask requirement when the expert report on the evaluation of previous corona protection measures expected for June 30th is available, said the FDP politician on Thursday on Deutschlandfunk. The FDP attached great importance to this. A meeting had already been arranged for July 1st. “Once this report is available, we will come to an agreement very quickly, and I think even relatively quietly,” emphasized Lauterbach. Before the summer break, the most important cornerstones should be decided. “We are doing reasonably well, much better than in previous years,” emphasized the minister.
Lauterbach again defended his plan to restrict free corona citizen tests. They should be used in a targeted manner, i.e. where they bring the greatest benefit. The minister named, for example, visitors to hospitals, nursing homes or large events as well as people who have symptoms of illness. Lauterbach also cited the high cost of the tests and many false-positive tests as justification. “The quality should be increased, the tests should be used more sensibly, the costs should stay within limits. I think we’ll get more out of the tests then,” said the minister. At the same time he urged them to hurry. The citizen tests financed by the federal government will initially be available until the end of June.
Meanwhile, the infection curve continues to point upwards. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the nationwide seven-day incidence on Thursday morning at 532.9. The day before, the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week was 488.7 (previous week: 480.0; previous month: 312.1)./shy/DP/nas