Lauterbach: Vaccination in care and clinics remains

Created: 05/07/2022, 13:39

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach © IMAGO/Frederic Kern

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has reaffirmed the obligation to vaccinate employees in care and clinics.

In addition, free testing after corona infection should be mandatory for these professional groups.

After the failure of a general corona vaccination obligation, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach is sticking to the obligation to vaccinate employees in clinics and nursing homes.

It was not a means of implementing the general obligation to vaccinate, but an instrument to protect people "who have confided in us," said the SPD politician on Monday in Berlin.

The facility-related vaccination requirement is not up for discussion.

The regulations were well received and implemented more quietly than some assumed.

The minister thanked the employees in clinics and care.

The vaccination requirement for employees in facilities for groups requiring special protection has been in effect since mid-March.

Criticism of uncertainties in the implementation had been voiced from the countries.

After the failure of a general vaccination requirement in the Bundestag, the debate picked up speed again.

Among other things, the German Hospital Society called for an immediate suspension of partial vaccination.

Final test strongly recommended for shortened corona isolation

With the prescribed isolation for corona infected people of five days in the future, a final negative test should be urgently recommended.

According to Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, this provides for new guidelines that the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) should publish on Monday.

Such a “free test” should therefore be mandatory for infected healthcare workers.

The SPD politician reiterated that the isolation for infected people should continue to be ordered by the health authorities.

This gives the signal that Corona is not a flu or a cold.

If someone approaches people infected, “then they are actually endangering their lives.”

Overall, Lauterbach spoke of a “solution with a sense of proportion”.

He explained that the isolation could be shortened to five days based on the shorter course of the disease in the current omicron variant BA.2.

So far, secretions usually last ten days and can end prematurely with a negative test after seven days.

The concrete implementation of the rules according to the recommendation of the RKI and the Federal Ministry of Health is up to the federal states.

There are already new regulations in several countries.