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Medical mask in a classroom (symbolic image)
Photo: Robert Michael / dpa
In the view of the Giessen Administrative Court, the order to quarantine a former student at a Friedberg school during the corona pandemic was unlawful. This emerges from a court ruling on Tuesday. In a second case, the court dismissed another lawsuit against a quarantine order.
The health department of the Wetterau district had ordered isolation at home for the former student at the Adolf Reichwein School in Friedberg and seven classmates after a classmate tested positive for the coronavirus using a rapid antigen test and a PCR test. The second case involved a plaintiff who tested positive for the virus at the end of 2020. His lawsuit was directed against the Marburg-Biedenkopf district, which had ordered a nine-day quarantine for him.
Classroom with continuously open windows
Both plaintiffs stated, among other things, that a PCR test was not suitable for detecting an acute infection. The chamber found that the time at that time had to be considered in order for the health department to assess the risk situation. The former Friedberg student was in a classroom with constantly open windows and large distances from his classmates and was wearing an FFP1 mask. He therefore did not fall under the criteria set out by the Robert Koch Institute at the time for a category 1 contact person. This meant that the order to isolate him at home was unlawful. Category 1 contacts were people who were in close contact with an infected person for at least 15 minutes and therefore had an increased risk of infection.
The other plaintiff, on the other hand, had to isolate himself at home for 14 days due to his positive corona test and a legal regulation in force at the time. Therefore his lawsuit was dismissed. The decisions are not yet legally binding.
swe/dpa