Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The North Rhine-Westphalian old people's and nursing homes are no longer allowed to impose unauthorized visit bans with reference to corona infections. NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) announced a corresponding decree on Tuesday in Düsseldorf. “Homes must now be open to visitors during visiting hours,” demanded the minister. The State Ministry of Health will no longer accept individual house law solutions.
"I think we just have to get back to normal everyday life in the old people's and nursing homes," said Laumann. Since the course of the disease is now also much flatter among older people than in the first years of the pandemic, this weighing up of protection and life chances is now justifiable.
The 114th Corona Protection Ordinance in NRW expires on March 1st and will not be replaced by a new version for the first time in three years. Then only a few protective measures have to be observed according to the Federal Infection Protection Act: a mask requirement for visitors in hospitals, nursing homes, medical practices and comparable facilities.
In retrospect, the temporary hermetic sealing off of the homes to protect against Corona causes Laumann the most trouble. In retrospect, it should be noted that "things happened that cannot be made good again," the minister admitted.
"I don't see it now that I have personal responsibility, but you have to say that people died without their relatives being able to be there." As a lesson from the pandemic, everyone should write in their register that contact with relatives should not be completely cut off. This must be regulated differently in future comparable infection situations.
