Isolation period for people infected with Covid-19 to be shortened

The isolation period for people with a Coronavirus infection in Berlin is expected to be reduced to five days.

The plans is to reduce the mandatory isolation time for infected persons to five days, Berlin's Senator for Health Ulrike Gote (Greens) stated on Monday (April 25, 2022) in the responsible committee of the House of Representatives. However, this shorter period should only apply if the person is symptom-free for 48 hours. If they are not symptom-free after five days, they must remain in isolation longer.

New isolation rules from the end of April

Previously, seven to ten days of isolation were required after a Coronavirus infectiona. According to Gote, the new line will be implemented in all German states at the end of April or the beginning of May. She stated that the Berlin Senate would address the issue on Tuesday and amend the Coronavirus Protection Ordinance.

Gote: Incidence to become "increasingly unimportant"

The senator sees this as a further step towards normalization in dealing with Coronavirus. This also includes the plan to change monitoring procedures. In the future, the incidence - i.e. the number of infected persons per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days - will "become increasingly unimportant" in the evaluation of the pandemic, Gote said. This is party due to the fact that not all infections have been recorded for a long time anyway, because less testing is being done than in the past. In the future, according to Gote, other tools will be used to get an overview of the infection rate. "We will then work with random sampling, just as it is done with influenza."