Monday, January 03, 2022
There is a threat of extreme staff shortages
Does the obligation to quarantine for boosters end?
The significantly more contagious Omikron variant threatens the simultaneous quarantine of hundreds of thousands in Germany. This can have serious consequences, especially in the critical infrastructure. The government is therefore planning to change the quarantine rules – for some groups of people.
The federal government wants to drastically shorten the corona quarantine times. According to information from the “Bild” newspaper, there is even talk of lifting the quarantine for those who have been boosted. The background to this is the fear that hundreds of thousands of people will have to go into quarantine at the same time due to the significantly more contagious Omicron variant – regardless of whether they are infected themselves or show symptoms.
The Federal Ministry of Health wants to submit a draft for new quarantine regulations by the middle of this week. In order to prevent relevant areas of society from collapsing, the federal government wants to reduce the quarantine time for fully vaccinated and boosted people from 14 to 7 days, according to the “Bild” newspaper. In addition, there should be the opportunity to be able to test yourself free after just five days. In some areas, it is suggested that the quarantine for those boosted without symptoms should even be dropped entirely. Above all, Janosch Dahmen, health expert for the Greens, is skeptical about the last-mentioned consideration, as he said in “ntv Frühstart”.
The omicron variant, which is milder according to previous findings, is significantly more contagious than the delta variant that has prevailed up to now. In addition, its infection time of 3 to 5 days is significantly shorter than that of the delta variant, which was between 10 and 14 days. For this reason, it is feared that hundreds of thousands of people will be infected with the coronavirus within a few days. In addition, there are many people who have to be quarantined as a precaution due to contact with infected people.
This could mean that, especially in the area of the so-called critical infrastructure, enormous staff shortages mean that important tasks cannot be performed. This involves state administration, nursing staff, fire brigade, police, garbage disposal and the supply of everyday goods, but also electricity and heat.