DThe health department’s order is worrying: anyone who has been in contact with a person infected with the coronavirus must stay at home for a maximum of 14 days isolation. But there is an important exception: if you have full vaccination protection against the Sars-CoV-2 virus, quarantine obligations do not apply in most cases. After all, compared to a person who has not been vaccinated, his or her risk of being infected, getting sick, and transmitting the pathogen to others is much lower. Therefore, vaccinated contacts can usually continue their daily lives. This is not only good for them and their employers, but also for the health ministers of the federal states. Because they don’t have to pay any compensation for lost income.
Free vaccination
According to the Infection Protection Law: Anyone who cannot work due to a quarantine order and suffers loss of income as a result is entitled to state compensation. In practice, the way this approach works is that the company continues to pay wages and reimbursed by the state. According to a survey conducted by the Evangelical News Agency on the responsible ministries of the federal states, the federal states have spent approximately 450 million euros in this area since the beginning of the pandemic. North Rhine-Westphalia alone paid approximately 120 million euros in compensation. But in some federal states, this practice should end soon. The reason is a sentence, which is also in Article 56 of the Infection Protection Act: “Compensation according to the first and second sentences will not be granted for any use of legally required or publicly disclosed vaccination in this field (… .) The person recommending the person’s habitual residence (…) could have avoided prohibiting his previous activities or isolation.”
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Employees who have not been vaccinated are responsible for their loss of income: in Baden-Württemberg, this principle will apply from September 15th. Then, the state does not want to pay any compensation to those who have not been vaccinated among the quarantined cases. Rhineland-Palatinate plans to follow suit on October 1. News from Hessen states that people who have not been vaccinated will have to anticipate that future compensation applications for loss of income due to isolation will be rejected. Mecklenburg-West Pomerania is also considering not paying compensation after the transition period-two months of discussion recently. For unvaccinated workers, if they have to spend two weeks without wages, sooner or later it will become expensive. At the same time, through the quarantine order, their boss will find that, at least indirectly, this person is obviously not vaccinated.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spann (CDU) believes that the federal states are doing the right thing. “I understand this argument very well,” he said at a news conference in Berlin on Wednesday with Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Isolation compensation is similar to free citizen testing: in the end, the cost is currently borne by the taxpayer. “In the long run, if someone doesn’t choose free vaccination, I don’t understand why others should pay for it,” said Spann, who once again vigorously promoted corona vaccination. “We have a way to get ourselves vaccinated and regain freedom,” Spann said.
The pressure of not being vaccinated is increasing
Patrick Zahn, the head of Kik, a trading company sitting on the podium, reports that there is a lot of uncertainty about young women in his workforce. Especially in terms of pregnancy, there is still a “big question mark” in the new crown vaccination. At this point, more education is important. According to data from the Federal Ministry of Health, so far, 61.7% of Germans have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. According to this, 66% of people received at least one dose of the vaccine. Spann said that this is not enough to survive autumn and winter. “The number of people who have not been vaccinated is still too many.” With the RKI boss Lothar Willer The warning said: “Anyone who is not vaccinated will be infected with Sars-CoV-2.”
People who have not been vaccinated are facing increasing pressure. In Hamburg, some restaurants and clubs only allow people who have recovered or have been vaccinated to enter, subject to less stringent protection regulations. Other federal states are discussing this issue. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) Prefer to allow only travel by train, with a negative test result—you will get paid soon—or an immunization certificate. The signal from the federal states is that, in addition to cost savings, not to replace the loss of income of unvaccinated people due to isolated cases, but also to pursue the goal of persuading as many vaccine suspects as possible to receive two injections.
If parents cannot work because their children must be isolated, the situation is different. After all, there are still no vaccination recommendations for children, and in most federal states, at least those who sit directly next to an infected child must be quarantined in school classes. As long as the “national pandemic situation” applies to Germany-the Bundestag recently extended this period-even if they have to take care of children in isolation, employees are entitled to compensation under the Infection Protection Act.
