recovered status remains
Countries emphasize: Everyone is entitled to a PCR test
01/31/2022, 8:40 p.m
The sheer number of omicron cases pushes the laboratories in Germany to their limits. That is why the health ministers of the federal states decide that medical personnel are primarily entitled to the high-quality PCR tests. Nevertheless, the average citizen should not miss out either.
In the future, PCR tests to detect a corona infection should primarily be available for people from the healthcare sector. At the same time, the right to these high-quality, accurate tests should remain for everyone. Saxony-Anhalt’s Health Minister Petra Grimm-Benne informed about this after a video call with her state colleagues and Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach.
“The test regulation is a matter for the federal government. The Federal Ministry of Health is obliged to publish it as soon as possible,” said Grimm-Benne in the evening. She hopes that this will happen this week, according to the SPD politician, who is currently chairing the conference of health ministers.
The background to the prioritization is that the laboratories are reaching their limits with the PCR tests due to the strong omicron wave with the high number of infected people. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach therefore announced last week that there should be a new order. If necessary, because of the prioritization, people should expect that it will take a little longer until they receive their PCR test results, according to Grimm-Benne. The prioritization is the task of the laboratories. For Saxony-Anhalt, for example, the test capacity could be doubled from around 10,000 PCR tests a week to 20,000, said the SPD politician.
Meanwhile, the health ministers have not been able to agree on a return to recovery status for six months. The department heads rejected a request from Bavaria to extend the convalescent status from the current three to six months. According to Grimm-Benne, Lauterbach had confirmed in the switch that the shortening of the recovered status was based on scientific results.
The health ministers did not advise today on easing the corona measures, said Grimm-Benne. Opening perspectives are firm intentions, but these can only be promised after the peak of the Omicron wave in mid-February.