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Karl Lauterbach: "It doesn't create trust"
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has rejected calls for an end to the obligation to isolate people infected with the corona virus.
"Infected people have to stay at home," Lauterbach writes on Twitter: "Otherwise not only will the number of cases increase even more, but the workplace itself will become a security risk."
The head of the panel doctor, Andreas Gassen, had previously called for all isolation and quarantine requirements to be lifted.
"This would alleviate the shortage of staff in many places," said the chairman of the board of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung": "We have to go back to normality.
Anyone who is sick stays at home.
If you feel healthy, you go to work.” The same is true of other infectious diseases such as the flu.
People who become infected with the corona virus have to be isolated at home for five days.
Employees in health care facilities must also prove that they are negative by means of a quick or PCR test before returning to work.
They must also be symptom-free for 48 hours.
A five-day quarantine is strongly recommended for people who have had contact with infected people.
Omicron according to Gassen "peace offer of the virus"
Gassen said that the number of infections had been very high for months and that there were probably hundreds of thousands of undetected infections per day due to fewer tests.
However, the courses are almost always mild.
“So the problem is not the many infections, but that those who test positive stay at home for several days even without symptoms and are sent into isolation.
This creates staff shortages in the clinics and elsewhere.«
Gassen advocated seeing the omicron variant "almost as a 'peace offering from the virus'".
Anyone who becomes infected after triple vaccination “even benefits from an infection by acquiring mucosal immunity”.
Those who have been vaccinated are well protected against severe courses.
Nobody should therefore be actively infected, said the KBV boss.
“But we can't hide from the virus forever.
And we are the last country in Europe that is still so excitedly discussing a corona emergency.«
Gassen also said that he would not have a second booster vaccination against Covid-19 administered.
Lauterbach criticized the chief physician for this via Twitter.
It is "not helpful if an important medical official emphasizes that he will not be vaccinated in the fall," writes Lauterbach: "That doesn't create trust."
ptz/AFP
