Recovered status only three months
Lauterbach wants Europe-wide regulation
01/27/2022 02:29 am
The Robert Koch Institute caused irritation a week ago with the decision to reduce the convalescent status from three to six months. The Federal Minister of Health defends the step – and now wants to enforce the new time limit throughout the EU.
In the dispute over the shortening of the recovered status after corona infections in Germany, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach defended the three-month period and wants to try to implement it at European level as well. “We will soon try again to implement the three months at European level,” said the SPD politician on Wednesday evening on ZDF’s “heute journal”. “After three months, someone who was already infected with the delta variant can become infected again with the omicron variant. So the three months are scientifically correct,” emphasized Lauterbach.
The EU states had agreed on Tuesday that travelers should be able to move freely within the Union without further restrictions if they present valid proof of vaccination, test or recovery. The proof of recovery is valid for 180 days, i.e. six months. In Germany, the status was surprisingly shortened to a period of 28 to 90 days after a positive PCR test in the middle of the month.
However, the question of a possible general obligation to vaccinate is an ethical and not a scientific one, Lauterbach emphasized after the debate on the topic in the Bundestag. In parliament, the SPD politician spoke out in favor of general vaccination, but not as a minister, but as a member of the Bundestag. According to Lauterbach, a vaccination register is not necessary and also a hindrance, since it would take too long to introduce it. According to Lauterbach, proof of vaccination could be checked at work or when using certain means of transport or even when visiting a doctor. There could also simply be sporadic controls like in Austria.