Where the guests enjoyed oven-fresh Schäufele and Franconian cabbage rolls before the pandemic, appropriately trained employees of the “Grüner Brauhaus” in Fürth are currently taking nasal swabs and analyzing the samples for Sars-CoV-2. In April, the Comödie Fürth team set up a rapid test center on the ground floor of the Art Nouveau building, which was initially in operation daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“In the meantime we have adapted to the opening times of the catering trade and are open from Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.”, explains managing director Michael Urban. Now he is considering whether the test operation should continue to operate on this scale or whether it should be discontinued in the foreseeable future. “We’ll watch it for a week and then decide.” Last weekend at least a surprising number of people would have been tested in the “Grüner Brauhaus”.
But now it could be that the company will soon no longer be profitable. After all, after the comprehensive easing in the Free State, proof of a negative corona test is only necessary for relatively few everyday things if the incidence in the relevant regional authority is below 50.
For example, when visiting residents and patients in old people’s homes and fully in-patient care and disabled facilities, for face-to-face teaching in schools and when staying in hotels and other accommodation providers as well as on campsites. Corona tests are also required for passengers on river cruise ships in accordance with the 13th Bavarian Infection Protection Ordinance, but otherwise the state government currently considers compliance with the known distance and hygiene rules such as mask requirements and contact restrictions to be sufficient.
New job for the comedy: “Grüner Brauhaus” becomes a rapid test center
Beer cannot be served here at the moment, which is why the makers of the “Grüner Brauhaus” in the Comödie Fürth have now decided to set up a rapid test center. Where the guests usually sit comfortably together at the Grüner, the staff is now highly concentrated on combating the corona pandemic.
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Even if the demand for corona tests would drop significantly in the coming weeks, nothing will change, at least for the “Bavarian test centers”. In accordance with a resolution of the Council of Ministers in August of last year, these were set up in every Bavarian district and in every independent city and are to be continued at least until September 30, 2021.
“We’ll have to wait and see how the Free State will proceed after this deadline. He’ll have to pay for everything, too,” says Michael Gottschalk, spokesman for the Neumarkt district office. Currently, the test center of the district on the Neumarkter Volksfestplatz is still relatively well utilized, recently around 150 PCR and antigen rapid tests were carried out daily. “At peak times, however, it was more than double,” added Gottschalk.
“We drive on sight”
Many other carriers also want to continue the test operation despite the likely lower capacity utilization in the future. “Our seven test centers will remain in place for the time being,” says Christoph Schneidewin, director of the Altmühlfranken Clinic in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district and head of the medical care center that operates these test centers. Up to 1500 tests are still carried out there a day, and the infection rate could change at any time. “We drive on sight,” says Schneidewin.
Incidence under 50: When do I still have to test myself?
What will happen to the other test centers, some of which are also operated by private companies, cannot yet be assessed, states Johannes Rank, head of the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen health department. “In principle, that’s up to you to decide whether it’s still worth it.”
Jens Spahn wants to lower the remuneration
Of course, that also depends on the remuneration for the tests, and Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) announced a reduction in remuneration following allegations of fraud against individual test centers. The operators should only be able to charge 11 instead of the previous 18 euros per test. Material costs are to be reimbursed with a flat rate of three instead of the previous six euros.
The various corona tests at a glance
There are now a number of different corona tests that differ in some points. When will I get the result? What is being tested anyway? Which sample is taken for this? We give an overview of the various tests and their implementation.
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The Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), which currently operates around 350 corona rapid test centers in the Free State, will nevertheless stick to a nationwide test operation. “If we found out that some of the smaller locations were not being used at all, we might have closed them again after a certain period of time. But these are only very few cases,” says BRK spokesman Sohrab Taheri-Sohi.
In this pandemic, it is not the requirement of the CRPD that something pays off, but that you do what is necessary. “We are sticking to our network of test stations, because the current infection process is also a snapshot,” emphasizes Taheri-Sohi. Should the numbers rise again, the infrastructure would not have to be laboriously restarted.
“Setting tests a false signal”
“From the point of view of the aid organizations, the discontinuation of tests would also send the wrong signal,” says Carolin Mauz from Johanniter-Unfallhilfe, which operates around 30 test centers in Bavaria. Regular, high-quality tests are still a sensible and effective measure to contain the pandemic. “We therefore continue to appeal to people, especially those who are not yet fully vaccinated or who have not had the disease, to regularly take advantage of the test offers.”
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