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Soon only for a selected audience?
A corona test center in Hamburg
Photo: Marcus Brandt / dpa
Several corona measures will expire over the summer, so Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is planning an “autumn strategy” to readjust the rules for fighting the pandemic.
The document available to SPIEGEL also mentions a restriction on free corona citizen tests.
But this project is now met with harsh criticism in the federal states.
"It is important that people have a free test offer," said Saxony's Health Minister Petra Köpping (SPD) to the newspapers of the editorial network Germany (RND).
"Due to the increasing number of infections, this is necessary." Lower Saxony's Health Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) also criticized the restriction to the RND newspapers.
According to Behrens, the obligation to test in schools, day care centers and almost all areas of public life has been abolished.
"But I think it's a wise approach to continue to make free tests available to all those who want to test themselves voluntarily." Financing is still the responsibility of the federal government.
NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) was also critical.
He expects "that the federal government will continue to enable a citizen-oriented test system in the future, especially for people with symptoms and to protect vulnerable groups," said Laumann of the "Rheinische Post".
He also criticized the tight schedule, as the current regulation only applies until the end of the month.
"It is absurd that the citizens, the employees in the test centers, but also the federal states still have no clarity about the future of citizen testing."
Measures not yet fixed
A paper from Lauterbach's ministry entitled "Corona Autumn Strategy" suggests that only people with corona symptoms and selected groups, such as hospital employees and small children, can take advantage of state-funded rapid tests.
There should be exceptions for corona hotspots.
The measure is not yet fixed: Lauterbach will discuss further action in the pandemic with his country colleagues this Wednesday and Thursday.
The head of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, warns in the "Rheinische Post" against a "clear cut": "Limiting preventive tests to hospitals and nursing homes alone excludes 3.2 million people in need of care, their relatives and carers." "Germany's largest nursing service" needs free tests without cause.
Before the consultations with Lauterbach, state representatives also renewed their demands for a rapid revision of the Infection Protection Act in preparation for the fall.
"The federal government must act now and adapt the Infection Protection Act," said North Rhine-Westphalia Minister Laumann.
"The current development shows how quickly changes in the infection process can occur, and then we have to be able to act."
The Baden-Württemberg Health Minister Manfred Lucha (Greens) said in the SWR that if the federal government waits with the amendment to the law until after the parliamentary summer break, it will be "too late" for the states.
After all, they would have to implement the corona containment measures.
»Well-considered and serious schedule«
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) again rejected the demands and referred to the agreement in the coalition to first wait for a scientific evaluation of the previous corona containment measures.
This is to be published on June 30th.
"We have agreed on a well-considered and serious schedule within the federal government," Buschmann told the RND newspapers.
The federal states also agreed at the prime ministers' conference.
"I think it's a sign of respect for science if everyone waits for these results and doesn't anticipate them," said Buschmann, referring to the evaluation.
mrc/AFP
