New rules for rapid corona tests: uncertainty and annoyance

Changed specifications for rapid corona tests should apply from Friday.

But they are not published yet.

At test stations in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen it is therefore sometimes unclear how things will continue.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

– Who can now get a free rapid corona test, who at a reduced price of 3 euros, and who has to pay the full price?

This question should actually be clarified, because the previously applicable test regulation, according to which everyone got a free citizen test, expires this Thursday.

How and whether things will continue is still unclear, even among the operators of test stations.

Wednesday morning: No rules published yet that will apply from Friday

So far, it has not been possible to get official information about the rules for rapid corona tests that will apply from Friday, July 1st.

As of Wednesday morning, neither the new test regulation nor any implementation instructions had been published, said district office spokeswoman Marlis Peischer at the request of the Tölzer Kurier.

Accordingly, some owners of a test station find it difficult to provide information about their next steps.

Operator Alexandra Dietrich could not say on Wednesday whether and how the operation of her Excura test station on Böhmerwaldstraße in Geretsried will continue from Friday.

In addition to the test regulation, this also depends on “ongoing negotiations”.

Pharmacist from Bad Tölz harshly criticizes the Ministry of Health

Panagiotis Zormpas, operator of the test station at Neuer Platz in Geretsried, says: "We will remain in operation." But Zormpas did not yet know anything about the future specifications on Wednesday.

“We are waiting for feedback from the health department.” The operator was calm: “We must and will adapt to the new rules.

It'll be fine."

Pharmacist Andreas Heinrich, who runs a test station in the “Vital Center” in Bad Tölz, gets even more excited.

He describes the new rapid test regulations from the Federal Ministry of Health as “not thought through” and “completely unrealistic” – starting with the fact that he had to piece together the regulations himself from the media.

Finally, he secured himself again from the Bavarian Pharmacists' Association, where he was at least informed about the most recent draft bill, which is unlikely to change.

The rapid corona test therefore remains free of charge for:

• children under 5;

• in the first three months of pregnancy;

• people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons;

• participants in studies on corona vaccines;

• Infected who want to test themselves free;

• People who either go to a clinic themselves for treatment or visit relatives in a hospital or nursing home;

Anyone who:

• attend an indoor event on the same day;

• wants to visit a person over 60 or a chronically ill person;

• received a red warning from the Corona-Warn-App;

• or lives as a contact person with an infected person in the same household.

Everyone else has to pay for the quick test themselves.

The pharmacist sets the price.

In the "Alten Apotheke" in Lenggries, for example, the owner Eva Löhle wants to charge 10 euros.

Pharmacist wonders: how to check justification tests?

What worries your colleague Heinrich above all is that he has to demand proof of his customers' justifications.

As far as he knows, people who have themselves tested before visiting a hospital or nursing home – “they currently make up the lion’s share,” says Heinrich – would have to bring confirmation from the facility with them, something like a “visiting slip”.

"But I'm sure that the homes and clinics don't know anything about it and will shy away from this amount of work," he says.

If you want to visit an elderly person at home, you have to make an affidavit about it.

And Heinrich finds it particularly difficult to prove that you live in a household with an infected person.

In addition to the patient's isolation order, you actually have to present the rental agreement, Heinrich thinks.

"There's anger programmed," he says.

For the time being, he wants to continue testing daily from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the vitality center.

"But if we find it's unmanageable or we're being addressed, we need to pull the ripcord."

Questionnaire to tick off rapid tests

Eva Löhle has thought of something else, and from July 1st she will no longer be testing in the tourist information office, but only in her "old pharmacy" (daily from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday mornings only, Sunday not). .

"I created a questionnaire on which you tick the reason for the test and confirm it with your signature." Controlling that is difficult, she admits.

"If someone wants to go to the concert, I can have the ticket shown to me," she says.

Otherwise, it relies on social control in rural areas.

“We generally know who has a relative in a nursing home.”

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