Dresden (dpa / sn) - Saxony is open to ending the obligation to isolate in the case of corona infections. However, the Free State considers uniform action by all federal states to be necessary, the Ministry of Health announced on Friday on request. "It is overdue for the Robert Koch Institute to finally issue a new professional statement due to the changed infection situation." Instead of mandatory isolation, you can also protect other people adequately by acting independently - with distance and a mask.
"In order to protect vulnerable people, there must still be certain restrictions for infected people, for example a mask requirement when they come into contact with other people and bans on entering facilities with vulnerable people," it said. An obligation to isolate would then no longer be absolutely necessary. "The principle remains important: if you are ill, stay at home. This also means that you are responsible for other people."
Four federal states had previously agreed to abolish the obligation to isolate people infected with the corona virus. It is Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein, as the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Health announced on Friday in Stuttgart. In these countries, new regulations should come into force "soon", the details are currently being worked out.
Lower Saxony had criticized that. "I think it's fundamentally wrong from an epidemiological point of view to dispense with the obligation to isolate people infected with corona in the middle of the third autumn of the pandemic. Even people who have no symptoms can carry the virus on and infect other people," said Health Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD).
The Dresden member of the Bundestag Torsten Herbst (FDP) spoke out in favor of abolishing the obligation to isolate. "Almost three years after the start of the corona pandemic, it is long overdue for Saxony to find a situation-adapted and responsible approach. That means very clearly: people with cold symptoms should continue to avoid contact." A symptom-free Covid infection should no longer lead to a day-long quarantine in the future. "It is high time to make a pragmatic return to normality and to learn to live with the corona virus permanently."
The four countries that have agreed to abolish the obligation to isolate are referring to experiences from neighboring countries such as Austria, where there have been protective measures "replacing isolation" since summer 2022. Other reasons given are declining numbers of infections, effective vaccination and basic immunity within the population of more than 90 percent. From the point of view of the federal states, this step is also justified by the fact that there are usually no severe courses of the disease and no effective antiviral drugs.
