Anyone who is not vaccinated needs a rapid corona test when going to a restaurant or in the cinema, for example.
Since mid-October this has no longer been free for most people - with a significant impact on demand.
Stuttgart - The demand for corona rapid tests has fallen significantly in the cities in the southwest in the past two weeks.
Since the majority of people have had to pay for the rapid test themselves since October 11, the municipalities in the state have recorded a significant decrease in the number of tests - at the same time, the number of test sites has been reduced.
In Stuttgart, for example, the number of corona rapid tests in the week from October 11, 1380, fell to around a fifth compared to the previous week, according to a spokeswoman for the city.
In the two previous weeks, the number of rapid tests in the state capital had been reported to have been around 12,000.
The drop in demand went hand in hand with a decline in the number of test offers. While there were 231 test sites in Stuttgart on October 13, there were still 220 on October 20. In Karlsruhe and the surrounding district, the number of municipal test sites has also been reduced by around 15 percent in the past two weeks, according to the city.
The city of Mannheim also recorded a significant decrease in the number of tests. While around 44,000 rapid tests were reported in the week from October 4th, according to the city, there were only around 7,200 rapid tests in the following week and thus after the end of the cost assumption. In Ulm, the demand for rapid tests fell by around two thirds over the same period, as a spokeswoman said. The rapid tests are mainly used in Ulm by people for whom there is no vaccination recommendation or by people who have been vaccinated with a vaccine that is not recognized in Germany, the spokeswoman said.
The federal and state governments had previously agreed to end the free citizen tests for everyone without corona symptoms on October 11.
The tests remain free for children from 12 to 17 years of age and pregnant women as well as for people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.
This transitional regulation is currently valid until December 31st.
State-wide figures on the demand for corona rapid tests are not available to the Ministry of Health, as a spokeswoman said.
One can only speculate how people's willingness to test will develop.
But the fact is: For many events and leisure activities, tests are a prerequisite for participation, if not only vaccinated or recovered people are allowed, according to the spokeswoman.
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From the point of view of the epidemiologist Dietrich Rothenbacher from the University of Ulm, the decline in rapid tests is no cause for concern.
These were only intended as a bridging strategy until there were better options for pandemic control and, for example, vaccination was available in sufficient quantities.
As a long-term strategy, tests are not sufficient, said the board member of the German Society for Epidemiologists.
It is really sustainable and important to convince everyone who can be vaccinated of the benefits of the vaccination, said Rothenbacher.
dpa
