Associations call for refurbishment
The Corona measures end after Easter: “Without protection plans, Germany is sliding into disaster again”
From Saturday, visitors to medical practices, clinics and nursing homes will no longer be required to wear masks
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After Easter, the mask requirement for visitors to clinics and practices will also expire, which will end the last Corona requirements. Associations warn to evaluate the measures: “Anyone who declares the pandemic to be over without consequence has learned nothing from it.”
According to the social association VdK, even after the end of the Corona requirements, the use of tests or masks should still be considered when visiting older people. “After the mandatory corona protection requirements expired, we are counting on people to act voluntarily and responsibly,” said VdK President Verena Bentele of the German Press Agency in Berlin.
“Anyone who visits their elderly or sick parents at home or in a nursing home for Easter can decide for themselves whether they want to test themselves beforehand or put on a mask,” said Bentele. “Especially if visitors have had contact with a lot of people on the way, for example on buses and trains, they should take that into account.”
After three years in the pandemic, the last nationwide corona requirements in the Infection Protection Act also end at Easter. From this Saturday, visitors to medical practices, clinics and nursing homes are no longer required to wear masks. The once numerous mask requirements, for example in shops, buses and trains, have long been lifted. At the beginning of March, mandatory tests for visits to clinics or nursing homes expired.
After Easter, personal responsibility applies
Regardless of the end of the state requirements, there may still be mask rules – but according to the respective decision of the local facilities. The head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, told the German Press Agency: “Of course, practices can set an additional obligation to wear a mask within the meaning of their house rules, and everyone can continue to wear a mask voluntarily.” But it is good that there will soon no longer be an automatic obligation and that the principle of personal responsibility will apply again.
At the same time, Gassen called for the pandemic and any mistakes that might have been made to be dealt with. All government measures taken must now be examined closely for their effectiveness, he told the editorial network Germany (RND/Friday). “At the moment, however, I don’t see that this is being taken seriously.”
It is about lessons for the future, emphasized the doctor. It would then also show whether Germany really came through the pandemic better than other countries, as politicians are now portraying. He himself called the handling of children in this country worthy of criticism. “One thing moves me above all: we have sinned against our children by closing schools unnecessarily for a long time.”
Demands to retrospectively work up the corona measures
The German Foundation for Patient Protection also called for a follow-up to the pandemic. “Anyone who declares the pandemic to be over without consequence has learned nothing from it,” said Eugen Brysch, board member of the German Press Agency in Berlin. “Because without nationwide protection plans, Germany will slide into disaster again in the next pandemic.”
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For the future, Brysch called for plans for a targeted deployment of personnel from politicians. “In emergencies, the federal and state governments must deploy medical and nursing staff where they are most urgently needed. However, there are no legal requirements,” said Brysch. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) “still has a mountain of homework to do”. Brysch recalled the recent faltering development of the “National Health Protection Reserve” for protective equipment and medical devices, among other things. “There’s a big problem here.”
The number of people infected with corona has continued to fall significantly in recent weeks, but according to the Robert Koch Institute there are still thousands of new cases every day.
