For more than a year, everyone could be regularly tested for Corona free of charge. The so-called “citizen tests” cost so much money that they are now being significantly restricted.
Most people now have to pay for a rapid corona test themselves.
As of today, free “citizen tests” at test centers or in pharmacies are only available for risk groups, for people who deal with particularly vulnerable groups and for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. This is provided for in a new test regulation by the Federal Ministry of Health.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner had agreed last week to significantly restrict the “citizen tests”. They have been around since spring 2021 – with a brief interruption last autumn. According to Lauterbach, spending on them was recently around one billion euros per month. “Not everything can be paid for by the federal government in the long term because our possibilities have reached their limits,” Lindner justified the new regulations.
Certain groups qualify
In the future, women in the first trimester of pregnancy will still be entitled to a free test, children up to five years of age, members of the household of infected people, caring relatives, people with disabilities and their carers or residents and visitors of nursing homes, clinics or facilities for people with disabilities.
For tests on the occasion of family celebrations, concerts and other indoor events, an additional payment of three euros is due. This also applies to a red Corona warning app or before private meetings with people over 60 or with previous illnesses outside of clinics or care facilities. If you want such a test, you have to sign that it is done for this purpose.
The new regulations met with a mixed response among citizens. 47 percent of Germans find the price of three euros appropriate, while 43 percent do not, according to a survey by the opinion research institute YouGov. 10 percent did not provide any information.
The corona numbers have recently risen again. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the nationwide seven-day incidence on Thursday at 668.6. The day before, the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week was 646.3 (previous week: 532.9; previous month: 189.0). However, the incidence does not provide a complete picture of the infection situation. Experts assume that the numbers are underreported because only positive PCR tests count in the statistics and not everyone does a PCR test.
Reports should provide new insights
How tests and other corona measures could continue in the fall should also depend on an eagerly awaited report that is to be presented in Berlin this Friday. A council of experts should examine and evaluate the previous protective measures. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that the results of the report would then be used “as quickly as possible” to draw conclusions for the measures to be taken in the coming autumn.
The Corona provisions in the Infection Protection Act that are still valid – such as the obligation to wear masks on buses and trains – expire on September 23. According to the ministry spokesman, key points for further action should be presented before the parliamentary summer break. The revised law is then scheduled to be passed after the end of the summer break in September.
In particular, the coalition partner FDP had insisted on waiting for this report before adjusting the infection shot law. Politicians from the SPD and the Greens, on the other hand, had called for more speed.
Source: Stern
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