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The goal has actually been clear for a long time: old people's and nursing homes must be given special protection in the pandemic.
Weeks ago, the federal government decided to make more rapid tests available to the facilities so that the virus would not even be brought into the homes by visitors and caregivers.
The problem: Many institutions simply did not have the staff to carry out the rapid tests.
"With the thin staffing that prevails in nursing, additional tasks - such as systematic close-knit testing - are impossible to handle," says Caritas President Peter Neher.
The Bundeswehr should provide quick relief.
As with the follow-up of contacts in the health authorities, soldiers should increasingly provide administrative assistance in old people's and nursing homes - and, after training, also make the smears for the tests.
Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) announced this two weeks ago and promised an order of magnitude of 10,000 emergency services.
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However, since then there has been great uncertainty among the cities and districts about who will bear the costs of such operations.
The municipality that requests administrative assistance in the event of a disaster usually pays the bill afterwards.
In the corona pandemic, however, this should no longer apply - the federal cabinet decided on Wednesday.
Accordingly, the Federal Armed Forces and other federal authorities can waive the reimbursement of expenses for assistance they received in the context of administrative assistance in combating the corona pandemic.
"The federal budget order allows this if there is an urgent federal interest," said government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer.
The regulation applies retrospectively from March 1, 2020 and is initially limited to the end of this year.
Kramp-Karrenbauer had repeatedly emphasized that administrative assistance was free for the municipalities, but there had been uncertainties until the end, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.
For this reason, too, the deployment of the soldiers was slow to get going.
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As of last Monday, according to the ministry, only 747 women and men were active in old people's homes nationwide.
It is the declared aim of the federal government that districts and municipalities now make more courageous use of offers of assistance.
"I can only advertise that everyone really makes use of this help, because with every infection that is not carried to a nursing home, we save and protect lives," said Kramp-Karrenbauer on Wednesday in the ZDF "morning magazine".
"Clarification comes late, but it is very important"
The cabinet decision met with relief among the municipalities.
"Today the federal government ensured clarity and cleared a bureaucratic hurdle out of the way," said the President of the German District Assembly, Reinhard Sager (CDU).
"This clarification comes late, but it is very important." The federal government has been talking about the use of voluntary helpers in the homes since shortly before Christmas.
"A lot of practical and legal problems had to be solved."
The demands of the soldiers are nevertheless cumbersome.
Because applications cannot be made by the individual institutions themselves, only the cities and counties as home supervisory authorities.
You have to collect the need from the providers and then submit a request for administrative assistance.
So far, the local needs have been very different, said Sager.
"We are not dealing with a nationwide personnel problem in the homes, but estimate that around a quarter cannot carry out the tests on their own and therefore need help."
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Caritas has already had good experiences with the helpers from the Bundeswehr.
Some Caritas associations and institutions are already receiving support from soldiers - this is the case, for example, in Berlin, in individual institutions in Bavaria, in North Rhine-Westphalia, but also in Leipzig, said Caritas President Neher WELT.
"The experiences have been consistently positive, the additional forces are a valuable relief."
The support is still far from being used across the board, especially since the information on the exact procedure and the modalities was only published a few days ago.
Now that the cost issue has been resolved, Neher hopes that the good examples will quickly catch on.
"In view of the spread of virus mutations, the situation is extremely tense - even where vaccinations have already been made."
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The corona test help hotline of the Federal Labor Office, which was activated on Monday, could also bring relief for the facilities.
Volunteers can register here for rapid tests in old people's and nursing homes.
You will be trained beforehand by the Red Cross.
"Until the volunteers are deployed, the Bundeswehr has been offered to provide free administrative assistance and support the tests," says District Assembly President Sager.
"Many of the institutions affected will certainly make use of this option."
The test initiative is rated positively at the German Red Cross.
"In particular, small facilities that previously did not have the opportunity to acquire additional test staff themselves or the staff is already at the limit, will be able to benefit from the test initiative," says a spokesman.
According to the Ministry of Health, there are already 1,400 people in training courses offered by the DRK.
"These will be available to the facilities at short notice."