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Dresden (dpa / sn) - Cross-border commuters from and into risk areas must be tested regularly for Corona once a week from next Monday.
The Free State is contributing to the cost of the rapid antigen tests with 10 euros each, as the Ministry of Health in Dresden announced on Thursday.
The cabinet agreed on this.
The obligation to test, which has been criticized by business and the DGB, serves to better protect employees and companies who cannot switch to home office.
This is intended to identify and stop chains of infection more quickly.
After criticism of the regulation, also from the business community, the government had withdrawn from the planned testing twice a week and had only anchored the obligation to test once a week in the new protection ordinance.
This can be carried out with company doctors, independently with general practitioners and specialists, private test providers and in some pharmacies.
Rapid tests from the neighboring countries of Poland and the Czech Republic are also recognized.
The ministry estimates that around 25,000 people can submit applications for cost sharing to the State Office of Saxony.
However, Detlef Hamann, the managing director of the Dresden Chamber of Commerce and Industry, fears that this practicable compromise is already obsolete.
If the Czech Republic was declared a risk area, commuters would need a negative corona test no longer than 48 hours old to cross the border, with the exception of the medical staff.
The obligation to test in Saxony must be suspended until it is checked whether the federal government's “surprising initiative” to test cross-border commuters from risk areas undermines the Saxon regulation.
"We are demanding clarity as soon as possible in order to agree on workable procedures and not to weaken the economy further."
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Information for cross-border commuters on the ministry website