Stamp: Local restrictions in daycare operations are unavoidable
Created: 2022-02-21Updated: 2022-02-21, 3:16 p.m
Joachim Stamp (FDP), Family Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, speaks in the state parliament.
©Oliver Berg/dpa
The high number of infections is causing severe bottlenecks in the daycare centers that are already affected by staff shortages.
Parents have to reckon with individual closures, says the NRW family minister.
The Verdi union sees dramatic conditions.
According to Family Minister Joachim Stamp, local daycare closures will be unavoidable in the coming weeks in view of massive corona-related staff shortages.
However, the state government will still not initiate any NRW-wide restrictions, the FDP politician assured on Monday in a letter published by the ministry to parents and employees in day care centers and day care.
"I'm relieved that Omikron turned out to be mostly harmless for our children and for vaccinated employees."
The Verdi union reported that the situation was sometimes dramatic.
Shortly before Christmas, a high level of danger was feared, especially for the youngest.
Scientists are now clearly assuming that severe courses in children are the "absolute exception", as Stamp emphasized.
Experts rated the risks of mental illness, addictive behavior or severe obesity as a result of restrictions caused by the pandemic many times higher.
In principle, however, a sick child does not belong in the care, the minister clarified.
An updated guideline for dealing with a case of corona infection states: If a self-test is positive and a then mandatory PCR test or a check in the test center confirms the result, the daycare child is automatically required to isolate for ten days.
If it lives with an infected person in a household, it must therefore comply with a ten-day quarantine - this also applies without an order from the health department.
Earlier free tests using a PCR test or negative evidence from a test center are possible.
If a person has become infected in the daycare center, the child does not have to be in quarantine.
However, all boys and girls will then be required to take a test, which will now last ten days.
Within these ten days, a total of four self-tests would have to be carried out at home and submitted.
Despite the falling number of infections, the self-tests are important and parents are asked to carry them out consistently with their children.
According to the ministry, the country provides three self-tests per week.
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Stamp again pointed out that those with statutory health insurance can apply for child sickness benefit if daycare centers are closed if they have to stay at home for care.
Anyone who is not entitled to this - such as privately insured people - can receive the care allowance from the state, which initially applies until March 19th.
Verdi spoke of dramatic conditions in some daycare centers.
A query in municipal facilities in Ostwestfalen-Lippe resulted in new sick leave every day, and it was often difficult to maintain operations.
After a good two years of the pandemic, the staff was completely burned out.
Hospitals and nursing homes are the main focus of public attention, but the employees in day-care centers have also been hit particularly hard, it said a few days ago.
Time is running out for working with children.
The minister asked parents to understand local restrictions on childcare.
Day care centers and day care centers are facing considerable challenges due to the pandemic and are trying to cushion quarantine and staff shortages with overtime and a lot of improvisation.
dpa
