Corona: Screening centers are threatened with closure

Created: 2022-06-01 06:39

By: Hans Moritz

As early as May 2020, the district’s central corona screening center opened at the Erdinger swimming pool.

It is run by the Maltese.

© Hans Moritz

The district’s two corona screening centers in Erding at the swimming pool and in Dorfen am Ruprechtsberg could be closed as early as the end of June.

Erding/Dorfen – Citizens would then have to visit (expensive) private test centers or their family doctor with symptoms.

The coffers continue to pay for it.

The background to the impending dissolution is that the federal test regulation expires on June 30th.

Experts have doubts as to whether the Federal Health Office will extend them.

“The internal coordination process is still ongoing.

The discussion remains to be seen for the time being,” was the somewhat vague answer from a spokesman for Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD).

It also remains unclear whether the obligation to test in the retirement homes will then also fall.

However, the intentions of the district office are very specific.

District Administrator Martin Bayerstorfer told our newspaper: "If the test regulation is not extended beyond July 1, we will have to close our two test centers because the costs will then no longer be covered." The district has so far been reimbursed by the federal government.

Both screening centers are operated by Malteser International.

There is also guesswork in the Bavarian Ministry of Health.

"It is currently not foreseeable whether the test regulation will be extended beyond June 30th," said a spokeswoman for Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU).

Bavaria is clear for it.

“The pandemic is not over.

Tests, especially for vulnerable groups, will continue to be necessary in autumn and will require adequate infrastructure," the spokeswoman continued.

The state government has "repeatedly urged the federal government to create clarity for autumn and winter - if possible before Pentecost".

Bayerstorfer cannot understand Berlin's hesitant attitude.

"There is already evidence of a new mutant, and we all know that there will be significantly more infections from autumn," he told our newspaper.

When the test regulation expires, "we will withdraw the containers and terminate the contract with the Maltese".

However, with a heavy heart: "There is a risk that we will be left with nothing in the fall and have to start from scratch again." It is regrettable that some have still learned almost nothing from the more than two years of the pandemic.

On the other hand, the district cannot and does not want to take on any federal tasks without reimbursement.

According to his spokeswoman Claudia Fiebrandt-Kirmeyer, 177,500 PCR and 95,000 rapid tests have been carried out at the screening centers since the beginning of the pandemic.

The first test site went into operation on March 11, 2020, back then at the nursing school.

On May 4th, 2020, the screening center at the swimming pool opened.

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