Four German regions plan to scrap rules requiring people infected with the coronavirus to isolate at home, saying the pandemic has evolved and it is time for a different approach.
The health ministry in the south-west state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said on Friday the region and two of its neighbours, Bavaria and Hesse, as well as Germany’s northernmost state, Schleswig-Holstein, are working on the details of new rules.
The ministry pointed to declining infections, effective vaccinations, a high degree of population immunity, milder illnesses and the example of countries such as Austria that have loosened rules.
Bavaria said its blanket isolation mandate will end on November 16.
The state’s health minister, Klaus Holetschek, said in a statement the time is right to give people more individual responsibility.
“The decision doesn’t mean that we will give free rein to infections,” he said.
“People who test positive will in the future have to put on a mask outside their own apartment. And, of course, the principle still goes that people who are sick stay at home.”
In Germany, decisions on coronavirus rules are largely a matter for the governments of the country’s 16 states.
Measures have generally been co-ordinated nationwide since the pandemic started in 2020, though to varying degrees, and the states enjoy a great deal of autonomy.
The national disease control centre currently recommends states order five days of isolation for infected people.
Federal health minister Karl Lauterbach said the states’ decision is “an important mistake” that will lead to a patchwork of rules in Germany but federal authorities could not prevent it.
“There is also no medical reason to dispense with an isolation mandate now,” he said.
“We currently have about 1,000 Covid deaths per week; we probably face a heavy winter wave.”
In April, Mr Lauterbach backed off a short-lived proposal to end mandatory isolation.
He said at the time the idea, intended to lighten the burden on local health offices, was a mistake and sent the wrong signal.
