Senate causes chaos with compulsory testing: Berlin publishes two different corona ordinances – Berlin

The Berlin Senate has published two different versions of the current Corona regulation. In doing so, he wreaked havoc on the regulations on compulsory testing in companies and when shopping. Because on Wednesday morning it was initially unclear how self-tests should be used on site, which are carried out “under supervision”.

Specifically, it is about the question of who is allowed to issue certificates of the result. These play a central role in the system of compulsory testing: anyone who has ever received a certificate of a negative test (for example from an employer or at a shop) can use it to go shopping or visit museums on the same day. There is therefore a right to a certificate after a self-test under supervision.

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The passage published on Tuesday in the Law and Ordinance Gazette is legally binding. Only the changes to the previously valid regulation can be found there. Paragraph 6b deals with the question of how a negative test result can be proven – for example when entering the store.

In order to certify a self-test and supervision, it says that this may only “be issued by a person who has been instructed and trained for this by the responsible person”. There, too, it remained open which type of training is meant. No information was found on the relevant pages of the Senate Chancellery or the Economic and Health Administration on the Internet.

In principle, self-tests should be possible on the shop door. The regulation explicitly refers to an “extended admission control”. In response to a request from Tagesspiegel, the economic administration also confirmed on Monday evening that shop staff should check self-tests at the entrance.

On Wednesday morning there was no longer any talk of “extended admission control”

Overnight, however, the Senate changed the text of the ordinance again. Because in the full text of the regulation on the website of the Senate on Wednesday morning the changes that had been officially announced in the law and regulation gazette could not be read.

For example, there was no longer any talk of “extended admission control”. And for the certification of the test result, it was now said that this could “only be issued by a body commissioned by the Senate Department responsible for health”. One motive could be to reduce the risk of falsified negative test certificates.

So the wording has been tightened. The consequence would be that companies would not be able to offer their employees self-tests under supervision without approval from the Senate. Those who shy away from the effort would therefore have to commission an external service provider who is already certified by the Senate for corona tests. This could be difficult for small companies.

Retailers would have to proceed in a similar way if they want to supervise and certify customer self-tests at the entrance. The inspection by the store staff, as promised by the Senate Economic Administration, could therefore not be organized without great effort.

All of this is in the subjunctive because it is not legally valid – even though it was published that way by the Senate. The formulations from the Law Gazette and Ordinance Gazette are authoritative. Affected companies and dealers could only guess at which of their two publications the administration ultimately adheres to.

By noon, the Senate had finally adapted the wording on the compulsory test on the website to the correct text from the law and regulation gazette. However, it was initially unclear whether the changes that had been adopted would otherwise be fully adopted. The one on the The full text of the regulation published on the Senate website can therefore hardly be regarded as a reliable source for the current Corona rules in Berlin for the time being.