New regulation for corona tests: costs, exceptions, evidence - an overview

Created: 06/30/2022, 11:06 am

By: Patrick Huljina

The new Corona Test Ordinance has been in effect since Thursday.

The free tests for everyone are a thing of the past, there are only a few exceptions.

Berlin – For more than a year, people in Germany were able to have themselves tested regularly for the corona virus free of charge.

As of this Thursday (June 30), that's over.

Most people now have to pay for their rapid corona test themselves.

Three euros are due for the so-called “citizen tests” at test centers or in pharmacies.

According to the new test regulation of the Federal Ministry of Health, exceptions only apply to risk groups, to people who deal with particularly vulnerable groups and to those who cannot be vaccinated against Corona for medical reasons.

Corona: End of free tests for everyone - "Possibilities have reached their limits"

Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and Minister of Finance Christian Lindner agreed last week to significantly limit the “citizen tests”.

They have been around since spring 2021 - with a brief interruption last autumn. According to Lauterbach, spending on them was recently around one billion euros per month.

“Not everything can be paid for by the federal government in the long term because our possibilities have reached their limits,” Lindner justified the new regulations.

Corona: These groups of people are still entitled to free testing

The groups of people who are still entitled to a free test in the future are limited.

According to the new test regulation, free corona tests are still available for:

• Children up to the age of five

• women in the first trimester of pregnancy

• People who have participated in clinical studies on the effectiveness of corona vaccines in the last three months

• Corona infected people and their household members

• caring relatives

• people with disabilities and their carers

• Residents and visitors of nursing homes, clinics or facilities for people with disabilities

Corona tests: costs, exceptions, evidence - an overview

The entitlement to a free corona test should be proven with appropriate proof.

Pregnant women can use the maternity pass for this, for example.

Household members of corona infected people can show their test results.

As before, an "official photo ID" must be presented.

Since many children under the age of five do not yet have an ID card or passport, it is sufficient if the legal guardians present their ID card.

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The new Corona Test Ordinance will come into force on Thursday.

© Marcus Brandt/dpa

An additional payment of three euros is due for corona tests on the occasion of family celebrations, concerts and other indoor events.

This also applies to a red Corona warning app or before private meetings with people over 60 or with previous illnesses outside of clinics or care facilities.

Anyone who wants such a corona test must then also sign that it is being carried out for this purpose.

Concert tickets, for example, can also be shown as proof.

Lauterbach defends new regulations: "Tests are valuable, they are important"

Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach defended the new test regulations in the ZDF "Morgenmagazin" against criticism.

"The tests are valuable, they are important," he said.

However, the costs for taxpayers for the previously free tests are too high.

In addition, abuse by test centers must be limited.

"There's always the possibility of fraud," admitted Lauterbach.

However, the corona test centers would now have to document why a test was carried out.

The minister emphasized that it would then be possible to use random samples to check this and thus prevent abuse.

According to earlier information, 10.5 billion euros have already been paid out to the commercial operators of the corona test stations in Germany.

Investigators are assuming a fraud amount of at least one billion up to 1.5 billion euros.