There are dramatic words that North Rhine-Westphalia's opposition leader Thomas Kutschaty (SPD) chooses.
“There is a risk of losing control,” he says.
What is meant is the high seven-day incidence among children and adolescents in the state.
One will "no longer watch as the black and yellow state government shrugged and observed these dramatic numbers among children".
The Social Democrats have therefore requested a debate on the subject in the state parliament on Thursday.
Kim Bjorn Becker
Editor in politics.
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Pure burger
Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.
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In North Rhine-Westphalia a good two weeks after the end of the summer vacation, the incidence among adolescents and children is higher than in any other federal state.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), North Rhine-Westphalia has incidences between 200 and 500 for the group of five to 14 year olds;
The incidence is 125 across all age groups.
As a result, many students are already in quarantine shortly after the start of school.
According to the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Education, 1.6 percent of the students were in isolation on August 26th, or 30,000 children and young people.
Enactment has proven impractical
Among all students in the country, 0.35 percent were confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. School Minister Yvonne Gebauer (FDP) therefore speaks of a "low level" of infections and defends herself against the allegations of the Social Democrats. Thanks to the strict infection control and hygiene requirements and the regular corona tests, school operations are "under control". In fact, no other population group is tested as systematically as high school students.
The quarantine rules are increasingly causing displeasure among parents, students and teachers - not only in the far west of the republic. According to the currently valid recommendations of the RKI, children and young people have to be in isolation for 14 days if a “close contact person” in their environment has tested positive for Corona. The North Rhine-Westphalian Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) tried in mid-August after consultation with School Minister Gebauer to “clarify” the RKI requirements for schools by means of a decree. According to this, only those directly next to the seat of an infected child have to be in quarantine for two weeks. If the masks were worn correctly during the lesson and "all other standard measures including correct ventilation were observed" and the distance rules were observed, the decree should refrain fromto quarantine the whole class including the teacher.
But Laumann's quarantine decree has evidently proven impractical. The responsible local health authorities proceed differently with the quarantine - and in case of doubt they do not just send individual students into isolation, but entire classes again and again. "It must not be that this school year again many children are unable to attend classes due to quarantine measures," Gebauer said in mid-August. But that's exactly what is happening right now.