The time of free rapid corona tests is over for most people.

From this Thursday onwards, so-called citizen tests will only be available for certain groups of people.

Firstly, they include those who have an increased risk of serious illness, secondly, contact persons of those who are particularly at risk - they also include visitors to hospitals and nursing homes - and thirdly those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons - they also include children under the age of five, women in the first trimester of their pregnancy.

Kim Bjorn Becker

Editor in Politics.

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Everyone else will have to pay an additional three euros for quick tests in test centers and pharmacies.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had previously agreed on the new Corona Test Ordinance.

Lauterbach estimated the costs for citizen tests, which have always been covered by the federal government, at around one billion euros per month.

Lauterbach defended the new regulation on Thursday.

He considers the bureaucratic effort to be "manageable," said Lauterbach on ZDF.

Anyone who wants to continue being tested free of charge must confirm and sign a form that he or she meets the criteria.

It would be "targeted fraud if you lie," said the minister.

There is always the possibility of fraud.

"You always depend on the honesty of the citizens," said Lauterbach. Anyone who wants to be tested before attending an event or a family celebration, for example, will have to pay their own share in the future.

This is intended to reduce the cost of the tests and limit abuse by test centers.

Public prosecutors are investigating in several cases because test site operators are said to have billed for fictitious tests.

According to reports, investigators assume a fraud amount of around 1.5 billion euros.

In Germany, the Corona numbers have risen again.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the nationwide seven-day incidence on Thursday with 667 cases per 100,000 inhabitants within a week.

A week earlier, the incidence was 533.

Which corona rules the government is heading towards the fall with also depends on the content of a report that is to be presented in Berlin this Friday.

A council of experts had been commissioned to evaluate the protective measures taken in the past.

From the results of the report, consequences for the measures in autumn should be drawn “as soon as possible”, as a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

Minister Lauterbach dampened expectations of the paper.

This is “just another building block” and not a blueprint for the measures that the federal government wants to adopt in the fall, when a significant increase in the number of infections is to be expected again.

In this context, Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) warned against closing schools again to contain the virus.

"As a result, the nationwide school closures were a mistake that we must not repeat," said Stark-Watzinger of the German Press Agency.

It was not yet known how the experts would scientifically assess the closures;

In the past, the FDP in particular has urged people to wait for the report before discussing further steps.

Stark-Watzinger said nonetheless that there should be “no more school closures across the board”.

As justification, she referred to “serious side effects” of the closures such as weight gain, psychological problems and loneliness as well as sometimes significant learning deficits among children and young people.