Are there any free tests again – but only for those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered?
The free Covid tests for everyone ended on October 11th. Now the offer is to be reintroduced under 2G conditions
Source: Getty Images / Westend61
With the rising Corona numbers, political calls for stricter admission controls in restaurants and events are loud. It is also a question of whether the state will pay the costs for additional tests again – at least for all those who have been vaccinated and have recovered.
Whe is vaccinated or has recovered does not need to be tested. This has been the case so far. But in view of the increasing corona numbers, there are considerations to also introduce mandatory testing at 2G events, to which only vaccinated and convalescent people have access.
“I think a 2G + rule for events makes sense in regions with a particularly high incidence or hospitalization rate,” said the CDU health politician Erwin Rüddel WELT.
Such additional tests would then have to be free again. “In regions where the 2G + rule is applied, I can then also imagine that there will be free citizen tests for those who have been vaccinated and recovered, the costs of which will be borne by society,” said Rüddel.
The CDU member of the Bundestag was chairman of the health committee in the legislative period that has just ended. Since October 11th, corona rapid tests have only been free nationwide for those for whom there is no recommended vaccination, especially for children. Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) has always defended this procedure.
In view of the increasing corona numbers, the introduction of 2G + models is being discussed in individual federal states, including in Berlin. “We are currently examining whether and under what possible conditions it makes sense that vaccinated or convalescent patients also have to submit a negative test in order to protect events as well as possible,” said a spokeswoman for the Berlin Senate Chancellery. A return to free tests in this context must be discussed nationwide.
Not free of charge for the general population
The first federal states are open to exempting citizens from the costs of corona tests regardless of the introduction of a 2G + model. “The offer of free citizen tests is an option that the federal and state governments should keep open,” said a spokesman for the Hamburg welfare agency WELT.
Because people who have been vaccinated can also get infected and in rare cases spread the infection, additional test offers or obligations, in particular to protect vulnerable facilities, play an important role, it says. However, that does not mean that the tests have to be offered again free of charge to the general population.
From Saxony it is said: “A reintroduction of the free corona tests is expressly supported by the Ministry of Social Affairs”, as the local Ministry of Social Affairs explains. And the Bremen Senator for Health Claudia Bernhard (left) had already criticized the abolition of the free tests. “She therefore sees reintroduction as positive,” said a spokesman.
This should also apply to PCR tests. From other countries it is said that such proposals are currently not being discussed – for example from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg.
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