STA, 19 January 2022 - New quarantine rules kicked in today for schools and staff at health care and social care institutions, and some changes apply to the protocol of PCR testing as daily numbers of coronavirus infections continue to break records.
The healthcare, social care and education staff are from now on exempt from quarantine if they had a high-risk contact, although they will have to get tested every day for seven consecutive days with a rapid antigen test and use a FFP2 face mask at work.
Similarly, kindergarten kids, primary and secondary school children and university students will have to get tested with rapid tests for seven days if they were in contact with an infected person at school.
Under the new rules, an entire class will be sent into quarantine only if the share of infected children in it reaches 30% in a two-week period.
The rules for the PCR protocol also changed today as labs are being overwhelmed with huge numbers of tests.
From now on, persons who have no Covid-19 symptoms do a rapid test or self-test, and if it is positive, they also undergo a PCR test.
Persons with a respiratory infection are meanwhile divided into two groups.
The first group - persons suffering from chronic diseases, those with a compromised immune system, pregnant women and children - must call their GP to refer them a PCR test.
The second group are all the other persons with symptoms of a respiratory infection. They will have to do a rapid test or self-test. If it is positive, they will also have to take a PCR test.
If the rapid test result is negative, the person with respiratory infection symptoms must nevertheless self-isolate up to three days.
If the symptoms persist beyond three days, they must call their GP to get an appointment for a PCR test. If the test is positive, they have to isolate for ten days. If the symptoms disappear in three days, the person is not considered to be infected.
