Heilbronn (dpa / lsw) – Education Minister Susanne Eisenmann (CDU) would like to use rapid antigen tests in schools and daycare centers in the future to contain corona infections. “I think the use of rapid antigen tests makes sense because they offer the opportunity to test more people in a shorter time and to detect infections more quickly,” said the minister of the “Heilbronner Voice” and the “Mannheimer Morgen” (Saturday). With the quick tests, a result should then be available within a few minutes.
So far, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs, the state government has only used so-called PCR tests at schools and daycare centers. Their results are usually only available after one or two days. The rapid tests could “quickly test affected facilities or groups, quickly identify and isolate even infected people without significant symptoms and thus protect our children, adolescents and employees from the spread of the virus,” Eisenmann told the newspapers.
The minister of education would therefore like to achieve that the rapid tests, which in contrast to PCR tests are considered more error-prone, are included in the test strategy of the state, which should then “largely assume” the costs for these.
At their meeting last Wednesday with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), the federal states only agreed that corona rapid tests should be used in hospitals, nursing homes, senior citizens’ and disabled facilities in the future.
In Baden-Württemberg, teachers and employees in schools, day-care centers and day-care centers could have themselves tested twice free of charge until November, even without symptoms. Minister Eisenmann would like to extend this free offer until the end of November and increase it to three tests; Social Affairs Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) has so far refused.
In response to the proposal made by his cabinet colleague, Minister Lucha said on Saturday: “In this extremely tense situation, now is certainly not the time to push forward with new demands, but rather to keep an eye on the overall situation.” The top priority is now clearly to filter out the most important sources of infection and to protect the particularly vulnerable groups. These are residents of the elderly and care facilities, the hospitals and the health care staff.
“This is also clear from the resolution of the Prime Minister’s Conference this week,” said Lucha. Of course, other groups such as schools and daycare centers would then also be taken into account according to clear infection focus criteria. There was agreement that the tests, which were not available indefinitely, would of course only be used where people are most at risk. The country ordered five million rapid tests in a first tranche very early on in order to be able to react quickly to major outbreaks or delivery bottlenecks. As a rule, however, the institutions ordered the rapid tests directly from the pharmaceutical trade or from the manufacturers, according to the minister.
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