In the future, too, citizens will be entitled to confirmation by a PCR test after a positive result in an antigen rapid test or self-test.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced a corresponding test regulation for this week and spoke of a “change in position”.

In a draft of the test regulation that became known a few days ago, it was still planned to suspend the right to subsequent testing by PCR, which was initially justified by the shortage of PCR tests.

That was obviously a false fear.

The existing capacity of PCR tests will be sufficient even if a daily number of up to 450,000 new corona infections is reached.

"And I don't think we will achieve that," said Lauterbach shortly before the expected peak of the omicron wave.

However, the prioritization of the PCR tests for risk groups such as immunocompromised patients and employees in clinics, practices, in nursing as well as in facilities and services of integration assistance for people with disabilities remains.

For everyone else, the prioritization is associated with a longer waiting time for the result.

When free testing after a corona infection, an antigen test should be sufficient.

Here the antigen test is even superior to the PCR test when it comes to proving whether an infected person is still contagious or not, said Lauterbach.

Overall, the minister sees Germany in a difficult situation because it has the second-oldest population in Europe and the gap in vaccinations is far too large, especially among the elderly.

Lauterbach has expressly warned against lifting the corona measures too suddenly because it could significantly lengthen the wave.

However, Lauterbach expects easing “well before Easter”.

While young people in particular became ill in the first few weeks of the omicron wave, the infections seem to be spreading more and more to the elderly, which is reflected in the increasing number of hospitalizations and a higher number of intensive care patients.

“We should ensure that as few children as possible are infected”

Although the proportion of seriously ill people with the omicron mutant is lower than with the Delta variant, three out of ten people over the age of 80 still have to be hospitalized, with Delta it was five out of ten.

According to the findings of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), a booster vaccination significantly protects against hospitalization, but also against severe courses and death.

"This effect is particularly pronounced in the group of people over 80," said RKI President Lothar Wieler.

A significantly higher risk is shown in the unvaccinated, which applies to all age groups.

According to Wieler, the long-term consequences for infected children and adolescents are also unclear.

However, there are increasing indications of long-Covid symptoms in children who have undergone a corona infection.

"We should ensure

The RKI President resolutely contradicted the impression that he did not know exactly enough what was happening in the pandemic due to the underreporting of infections.

The RKI can assess the situation very precisely using the available indicators.

The hospitals are currently busy but not overloaded, 2400 Covid patients are in the intensive care units.

It is uncertain how the number of deaths will develop.

177 people who died from or with Corona were reported again this Tuesday.

However, the deaths could increase again if a larger number of older people infected with omicron became seriously ill.

It is now a matter of protecting vulnerable people and the critical infrastructure.

In a few weeks, Omikron will be over and Easter can be celebrated in a relaxed manner.

Wieler contradicted the deceptive hope that

"No one is safe on this planet unless everyone is safe"

He let the FDP's criticism of his administration roll off and launched a charm offensive: "We've grown so fond of each other," Wieler said with a wink at the federal press conference in Berlin that he himself gave a speech on his 61st birthday alongside the Minister of Health and answer stand.

The director of the European Bioinformatics Institute of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Cambridge, Rolf Apweiler, referred to the need for a high vaccination rate at a global level and for worldwide genome sequencing.

The more people in the world who are not vaccinated, the more infections there are and the more new variants are created.

"No one is safe on this planet unless everyone is safe," Apweiler said.

He complained about the tight German data protection guidelines that prevented studies like those in Denmark or the United Kingdom.