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PCR test
Photo: KAI PFAFFENBACH / REUTERS
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Visiting Bioscientia, one of the largest laboratories for corona tests in Germany.
In the midst of the omicron wave, the evaluations of the PCR evidence are running at full speed - and almost at the limit.
Oliver Harzer, Managing Director of Bioscientia
»Well, somehow we still have a ten percent buffer spread across the country. There are a few locations that are already in the border area, but we can solve that quite well by sending the samples around the country.«
The health ministers of the federal states are currently discussing a change in the corona test strategy in order to counteract the impending overload.
A draft resolution from Monday evening provides, among other things, that if the number of infections is high, PCR tests will in future be restricted to “symptomatic people and possibly vulnerable groups”, i.e. older people, people with disabilities or those who have previously had illnesses.
In the case of a red Corona warning app, as well as in the case of people with a symptom-free corona infection, PCR tests should be dispensed with after a positive rapid test in order to relieve the laboratories.
Oliver Harzer, Managing Director of Bioscientia
“Well, Omicron's contagiousness certainly plays a major role. We saw something similar with Delta last fall after fall break, with a very strong spike. Omicron is significantly more contagious. Omicron has now clearly spread again after the Christmas holidays and now that school has started. And that leads to a massive increase in infections and then of course with a corresponding utilization of all test units that we have available in Germany.«
Free testing from quarantine or isolation, which is carried out exclusively with a high-quality and possibly laboratory-based antigen test, is also under discussion.
How and when exactly the new rules will be implemented is not yet known.