Infectiologists on corona rules: "Air filters and testing of asymptomatic children are dispensable"

The German Society for Hospital Hygiene (DGKH) and the German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (DGPI) have issued a joint statement on the current treatment of children in the Corona crisis.

The focus is on the specific infection and transmission risks of Sars-CoV-2 as well as morbidity and mortality in children and adolescents.

The background to this is the discussion about nationwide uniform prevention and quarantine rules for daycare centers and schools;

The authors of the two renowned societies argue for less strict regulations than before.

Susanne Kusicke

Political Editor.

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The authors strongly advocate that all persons who are in close contact with children and adolescents must be fully vaccinated.

Teachers, carers and educators are responsible for protecting the children entrusted to them, the authors argue.

Appeal not to use unventilated rooms at all

In return, if the basic hygiene rules (coughing and sneezing etiquette, hand washing, ventilation, good sanitary hygiene) are observed, schools, clubs, swimming pools, music schools and other such facilities can be kept open without restriction.

With sufficient window ventilation, air filters in the rooms can be dispensed with, according to the authors;

Unventilated rooms should not be used at all.

The authors reject regular testing of asymptomatic children and adolescents with antigen or PCR tests as well as group tests with the Lolli method.

Wearing a mask could be useful in corridors and stairwells in secondary schools, but only in breakout situations.

This must then apply to everyone, regardless of their vaccination status, in order not to discriminate against young people who have not been vaccinated.

Quarantined students should be offered a PCR test on the fourth or fifth day;

if the result is negative, the quarantine should be lifted.

As an alternative to quarantine, face-to-face lessons with mouth and nose protection and daily testing of the contact persons can be continued.

Approval for vaccination of children according to STIKO recommendation

The vaccination of children and adolescents according to the current STIKO recommendation is expressly recommended in the statements.

At the beginning of September, the majority of the health ministers of the federal states spoke out in favor of simpler quarantine rules in schools.

In principle, quarantine should no longer be ordered for the entire class association in one case, the decision said.

The new rules should be passed on to the health authorities as “guard rails”.

The goal is good infection protection and as much classroom teaching as possible.

Children who are quarantined as close contacts and have no symptoms should therefore be able to end them with a negative test after five days at the earliest.

The local health authorities should also be able to decide differently in individual cases.

Quarantine orders should generally be issued “with a sense of proportion” and depending on protective concepts with ventilation, tests and the wearing of medical masks.

Previously, the countries had dealt differently with cases of infection in school classes with a quarantine period of 14 days.

Sometimes only people sitting next to them were quarantined, sometimes entire classes.