North Rhine-Westphalia: Christmas visit to the nursing home for the first time without proof of testing

If you want to visit a loved one in a home or hospital, you can save yourself a trip in the future: to the corona test station.

North Rhine-Westphalia: Christmas visit to the nursing home for the first time without proof of testing

If you want to visit a loved one in a home or hospital, you can save yourself a trip in the future: to the corona test station. This makes Christmas visits a little less complicated.

Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) - For a Christmas visit to a nursing home or hospital, visitors to North Rhine-Westphalia no longer need official proof of the corona test for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. A self-test is usually sufficient. This is regulated by the country's updated Corona Protection Ordinance, which will come into force this Friday. However, the obligation to wear an FFP2 mask will not change.

In the future, visitors will be obliged to test themselves for the corona virus before visiting a nursing home, hospital or prison. The test must be taken on the day of the visit, no earlier. When entering the facility, visitors may be asked whether they have currently tested negative. However, this should be as unbureaucratic as possible: "An oral assurance is sufficient," says the regulation. Only “in the case of justified doubts” or in the case of people with obvious symptoms of illness can the facility insist that a visitor take another self-test under supervision.

The Ministry of Health emphasizes that homes and hospitals should not simply deviate from this regulation with reference to their domiciliary rights. The only exception: If there is a test station directly on the premises of the facility that is open at the time of the visit, visitors can be obliged to take a corona test there.

Previously, visitors had to be able to present negative test evidence from a certified test station in order to be able to visit relatives or acquaintances in hospitals and retirement homes. However, anyone who would like to continue using the citizen test stations can do so. There are no costs for visitors to nursing homes and hospitals.

However, there is an exception to the new regulation in the East Westphalian district of Minden-Lübbecke. Because the corona incidence there is one of the highest in Germany at over 600, the district administration has approved the Mühlenkreis clinics to continue to only let visitors into the house with an officially recognized rapid test.

However, one thing does not change: Anyone who takes a self-test and is shown two stitches is still obliged to have a control test carried out in North Rhine-Westphalia. To do this, infected people can go to a citizen test center or have a free PCR test done.

The NRW state government also adheres to the obligation to wear masks on buses and trains. Unlike in other federal states, travelers on local public transport must continue to wear a medical mask (surgical mask). In Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt, masks are no longer compulsory on buses and trains in local public transport. In Schleswig-Holstein it expires at the end of the year. According to the Infection Protection Act, FFP2 masks are mandatory nationwide for long-distance trains and long-distance buses until April 7, 2023.