The voluntary isolation of corona infected people planned for May 1st should not exist after all.
This was announced by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach.
“It would be wrong for the health authorities to end the order for isolation after a corona infection in favor of it being voluntary and it will not happen.
I made a mistake here," wrote the SPD politician on Twitter on Wednesday.
The planned change relieves the health authorities.
But the signal is "wrong and harmful".
Lauterbach went on to write: “Corona is not a cold.
Therefore, there must continue to be isolation after infection.
Arranged and controlled by the health authorities.” He wants to make more official on Wednesday.
Lauterbach emphasized: "The mistake was mine and has nothing to do with the FDP or relaxation." In the ZDF program "Markus Lanz" late Tuesday evening, Lauterbach had already announced that the voluntary isolation of Corona planned for May 1st -Infected will not give.
A shortened isolation of five days should remain.
After consultations with the federal and state health ministers, the minister announced on Monday that from May 1st, people infected with corona and contact persons would usually only have to be in isolation or quarantine voluntarily and for a short period of time.
Infected people should therefore only be “strongly recommended” to isolate themselves for five days and avoid contacts – it should apply accordingly to contact persons of infected people.
An order from the health department should be omitted.
Lauterbach said on ZDF that it would have made sense to relieve the health authorities.
However, the signal that an infected person decides whether to isolate himself is “so negative, so devastating” that there must be a change at this point.
The “symbolic damage” that Corona is not dangerous is so devastating that you cannot do this isolation order.
"It stays the same if someone is sick, so if they got infected, then the health department orders it further.
And if someone is just a contact person and it's quarantine, then you do it yourself.” You don't need the health authorities for the quarantine.
The head of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, said it was good that the Federal Minister of Health saw his mistake and wanted to maintain the obligation to isolate infected people.
The isolation obligation of an infected person is different than the quarantine of a contact person.
“Infected people infect other people with the virus and endanger the immunocompromised people who live among us.
Corona is not a cold.”