The correct corona strategy in schools has been discussed in the Thuringian political establishment for months.
Now the number of infections among younger people is increasing - and the municipalities are speaking out.
However, a new report stands in the way of this.
Erfurt - While the calls for a new corona test strategy in schools are getting louder, a new report comes to the conclusion that unprompted corona tests in schools are not necessary. Children and adolescents contribute to the pandemic - as do unvaccinated adults, the scientific advisory board notes in the report, which is dated Thursday and is available to the German Press Agency. In contrast to adults, however, children and adolescents very rarely became seriously ill.
"Because children themselves cannot become seriously ill and adults cannot be vaccinated, quarantine measures can in principle neither be justified for self-protection nor for third-party protection," says the special report.
According to this, among other things, non-event-related tests several times a week are “no longer well justified”.
The costs for this would also be disproportionate to the “benefits erroneously expected by the public”.
The state government commissioned the special report when it became known at the beginning of the week that the corona incidences in children and adolescents - especially in the younger age groups - have risen sharply.
On Monday, the seven-day incidence - i.e. the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week - was 290.6 among 5 to 14-year-olds.
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Test evidence is mandatory for day-care center employees
Unvaccinated employees in daycare centers in Bavaria have had to prove that they have tested negative for Corona since Monday.
The tests have to be done three times a week, the Family Ministry said.
Without proof that there is no corona infection, employees are not allowed into the facility.
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In the meantime, calls for a new test strategy have been raised from several cities and counties.
According to the city administration of Weimar, the focus of the city's infection process in recent days has been in schools and kindergartens as well as in the families of the children affected.
"The only effective way to significantly reduce the risk of infection protection is to immediately reintroduce compulsory tests in schools and kindergartens at an early stage," said Weimar's Mayor Peter Kleine (non-party) on Friday. Only then does a general decree make sense in other areas of life.
Jena's top city also expressed incomprehension about the way through the pandemic in the education sector. "As few infections as possible - we have taken very stringent and preventive measures again and again," explained Mayor Thomas Nitzsche (FDP). This pandemic strategy is to be continued. "We expect the state government to support these efforts and not sabotage them." The district administrator of the Gotha district, Onno Eckert, reacted angrily: "The Ministry of Education is jeopardizing the health of an entire region out of political dogmatism."
The test strategy in schools has meanwhile also led to unrest in the red-red-green coalition.
The SPD parliamentary group decided on Wednesday to convene the coalition committee on the issue.
According to the current Corona rules, schools do not offer any tests at the so-called basic level, i.e. if the burden on the health system is considered to be low.
From warning level one tests must be offered, in the highest warning level three they are mandatory.
dpa