Berlin (AFP)

Germany will put an end to free Covid-19 screening tests from October in the hope of relaunching a vaccination campaign that is slipping, the government and the regions decided on Tuesday.

From this date, people who do not want to be vaccinated will have to pay for a test proving that they are negative for Covid-19 in order to be able to go to the cinema, to the restaurant or to the gym.

Proof of vaccination or a negative test will also be required as soon as the infection threshold reaches 35 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over seven days.

The free tests will however remain in force for people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, for pregnant women or children, according to the text adopted at the meeting between Angela Merkel and the sixteen heads of regional governments.

As Germany now has sufficient doses of vaccines for all citizens, "we will put an end to free tests from October 11," said the Chancellor.

- "Responsibility of all"

And she said she hoped "vaccination rates will rise again sharply", deeming it "everyone's responsibility" to encourage vaccination.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (c) surrounded by German politicians after a press conference on August 10, 2021 in Berlin CHRISTIAN MANG POOL / AFP

After vaccinating more than a million people a day at the height of the campaign, the pace has drastically slowed down in Europe's largest economy during the summer holidays.

Some 52 million people have received at least one dose in the country, or 62.5% of the population, according to the latest data from the Robert Koch Institute for Public Health Surveillance.

For several weeks, the debate has swelled in the country on how to convince the reluctant without making vaccination mandatory, while infections and fears of a fourth wave of the pandemic are increasing.

The incidence stood at 23.5 Tuesday in the country, but some Länder, including the state cities of Berlin and Hamburg, it has already passed the threshold of 35.

Angela Merkel has more than once reaffirmed her opposition to an obligation to be vaccinated general or partial, as in France or Greece for nursing staff in particular.

But the idea of ​​paid tests has been criticized, especially by the extreme right, as an indirect way of forcing reluctant people to get vaccinated to avoid being restricted in their freedom of movement.

Merkel replied on Tuesday that immunized people could not be asked to continue to be restricted because part of the population refuses the vaccine.

"We must also think of those who work in the hospital and it is excluded to overload the health system", she insisted.

By charging for tests in the future, Germany is taking a path similar to that of several European countries, including France, where a health pass is now required for example to go to the cinema, to the café or to take the train.

© 2021 AFP