German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach
(Picture: REUTERS)Germany’s health minister has U-turned on a decision to end compulsory isolation for people who test positive for Covid, calling it a mistake.
Federal health minister Karl Lauterbach had said Monday obligatory self-isolation would be scrapped on May 1 and replaced with a strong recommendation to isolate for five days.
But days later, Mr Lauterbach announced a change-of-heart over the proposal and said it was a “mistake I am personally responsible for”.
“I have withdrawn the proposal because the completely wrong impression would have arisen that either the pandemic is over or the virus has become significantly more harmless than was assumed in the past,” he told reporters in Berlin.
Nearly 350 Covid-related deaths were recorded on Tuesday, he said, adding case numbers “are much too high" and Long Covid is “a big problem."
Instead, he said he would propose keeping a mandatory five-day isolation in place.
Current obligatory self-isolation is for 10 days but can be cut to seven days with a negative test.
Mr Lauterbach said his aim had been to lighten the burden on local health offices and he will instead lift a requirement for the contacts of infected people to quarantine.
Most Covid curbs have recently been relaxed.
Mr Lauterbach, an epidemiologist and member of the centre-left SPD, was one of Germany’s most prominent voices urging caution in the earlier stages of the pandemic.
However, as health minister in a three-party coalition government, he has faced political pressure over his stance.
Speaking on Deutschlandfunk radio, opposition leader Friedrich Merz criticised what he called a "breathless" style of government "with decisions that don’t last for 48 hours".
Mr Merz also criticised the coalition’s approach to a potential vaccination mandate ahead of parliamentary votes set for Thursday.
The chancellor Olaf Scholz has backed a mandate but has left it to politicians to come up with cross-party proposals amid divisions in his own government.
