(new: Decision Schleswig-Holstein)
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Anyone who has been infected with the corona virus no longer has to go into isolation everywhere in Germany: Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg abolished the corresponding regulation on Wednesday. According to the health ministries in Munich and Stuttgart, they will be replaced by protective measures for infected people. In Schleswig-Holstein, the obligation to isolate will no longer apply on Thursday, as the state government announced on Wednesday.
Outside of your own home, you have to wear mouth and nose protection – medical or FFP2 mask – for five days in both countries. The mask can be removed outdoors as long as a minimum distance of 1.5 meters is maintained. Children who do not yet go to school are exempt from the mask requirement. In addition, those who test positive are not allowed to enter any medical or nursing facilities – neither as visitors nor as staff.
According to the Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU), the rules are a balance between personal responsibility and the protection of vulnerable groups of people. The decision to lift the obligation to isolate and the new measures was taken in consultation with experts, he said on Tuesday. The Minister of Health of Baden-Württemberg, Manne Lucha (Greens), had said in advance: “The basic rule is: Anyone who is ill and has symptoms should stay at home as before and take sick leave.”
The reactions varied. Above all, there were calls for a joint approach by the federal states. “We need a nationwide solution,” said Ellen Lundershausen, Vice President of the German Medical Association, to the German Press Agency on Wednesday. The advance of individual countries is counterproductive. It is incomprehensible for citizens if this is regulated differently in a directly neighboring federal state than in their own. The Rhineland-Palatinate Health Minister Clemens Hoch (SPD) also warned on Wednesday on the radio station SWR Aktuell that the procedure should be as uniform as possible.
Lundershausen does not think the way of the two countries is bad, if “there would be a nationwide solution”. Approval also came from the Bavarian Economic Advisory Council and the health expert of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus. Experts such as the virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit or the President of the German Medical Association Klaus Reinhardt had previously considered the course acceptable.
The German Foundation for Patient Protection, on the other hand, heavily criticized the new rules. They are “contradictory” and “chaotic”. There can be no talk of infection protection for vulnerable groups. Representatives of the Bavarian teachers’ associations called for clear and implementable rules and a clear definition of what “sick” or “contagious” means on Tuesday. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had already criticized the initiative after the announcement as a mistake and warned of a “patchwork”.
The southern German states as well as Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein announced the end of the isolation obligation last Friday and promised new rules “soon”. Hesse left the exact time for this step open. Other federal states recently also considered abolition, others rejected such a step./jwe/DP/jha