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In addition, the quarantine period will be shortened. Now people often have to quarantine for fourteen days, depending on a number of factors.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of the German federal states have decided that people must stay at home for another ten days if they have been in contact with an infected person. The quarantine can be ended after seven days with a negative corona test. People with a booster vaccination no longer need to be quarantined at all.
In Germany there is currently already a 2G policy for the catering industry: only vaccinated people or people who have recently recovered from an infection are allowed in. The extra test measure now comes on top of this.
In a number of federal states, 2G-plus already applies at certain locations, for example at sports competitions or in swimming pools. The extra measures are now being taken due to an increase in the number of corona infections due to the extra contagious omikron variant. The shorter quarantine should prevent staff shortages in healthcare, for example.
According to Scholz, many new people will be hospitalized by omikron. The variant seems to lead to a serious disease course less often, but does not rule out hospitalization. A booster vaccination ensures that people are better protected against omikron.
In Germany, almost 72 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, almost 42 percent has had a booster.