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Two weeks is too long, now the golden rule of quarantine should fall
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Back to freedom? Rapid antigen tests are intended to shorten quarantine time, but are not yet widely used.
Quelle: Getty Images
Health Minister Jens Spahn and SPD expert Karl Lauterbach want to shorten the crown quarantine period. This is the only way to trust the good will of the Germans. Companies appreciate the move, but the idea has a problem.
WWhat about Christmas? No question seemed more urgent when the federal and state governments announced Corona’s December calendar on Wednesday. A planned relaxation almost collapses: Starting in December, the contact persons of infected people will only have to be quarantined for ten days instead of the previous 14 days, provided that those affected can present a negative rapid test.
A first degree contact person is, for example, someone who has been in closest contact for more than 15 minutes within a distance of less than five feet from those who tested positive. The federally owned Robert Koch Institute (RKI) recommendations for health authorities should be adapted accordingly. Not even in place yet, the next step could follow soon.
Karl Lauterbach, a health expert at the SPD, considers a further reduction to seven days possible. “I think with such regulation we could increase the willingness to actually implement quarantine and we would not lose anything essential in terms of security,” Lauterbach told WELT. The long quarantine beyond the margin necessary for safety does not help at a time when the willingness of the population to cooperate is diminishing.
The model is based on an idea from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American counterpart of the Robert Koch Institute. The agency is considering shortening the quarantine period to seven days, as the Wall Street Journal reports. The authority recommends a negative test result for early termination. Experts hardly see any major infection risks in this. If a test is negative after seven days, the chance of developing an infection afterward is very low, CDC physician Henry Walke told the newspaper. The CDC hopes this will result in greater public acceptance of the quarantine.
Economy welcomes shortening of quarantine
The federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn (CDU), also does not see additional infection risks in the shortening in this country. “Ten days of quarantine with a quick test at the end is as safe as 14 days of quarantine without a test, but it means four fewer days of restrictions for those affected,” he told the Funke media group newspapers.
It is worth shortening the quarantine. But there is a problem: It was not clear at first whether faster antigen tests would be used in the population as a result of the shortening. In the US, the tests will soon be approved for personal use, but in Germany, a doctor or medical specialist will still have to perform the smear.
Much of the German economy is satisfied with the shortening – it’s a major relief for companies’ staffing levels, according to the Central Association for German Crafts (ZDH). The shorter quarantine time reduces this burden because pandemic-related employee downtime is dramatically reduced. “The evidence-based quarantine shortening makes sense,” says BDI President Dieter Kempf.
This relieves the affected citizens, but also the economy. For the industry, however, the measure is likely to be the notorious drop in the ocean. “The gravest dangers to the economic recovery in the coming year lie in the closure of large-scale businesses,” says Kempf. The latest decision offers short-term guidance, but does not yet provide a sufficient planning horizon for the economy.
