Isolation and quarantine because of corona

Since mid-January, shorter isolation and quarantine periods have been in effect in NRW for anyone who has been infected with Corona or who has contact with someone who is ill. An overview.

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Since mid-January, people infected with Corona and those who have had contact with infected people have been able to end their isolation or quarantine earlier than before. By amending the Corona Test and Quarantine Ordinance, the NRW state government had implemented the decisions of the Conference of Minister Presidents. Here is an overview of the most important regulations. The decree with all details can be downloaded from the website of the NRW Ministry of Health.

NRW Ministry of Health: Ordinances, General Orders and Decrees | more

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WDR 5 Westblick – current . 17.01.2022 . 04:57 Min. . Available until 17.01.2023 . WDR 5 .

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Infected must, as soon as they have a positive result of a rapid test or PCR test, generally go into isolation for ten days. Calculated from symptom onset or the rapid or PCR test. If one is not symptom-free after the ten days, the isolation must still be continued.

As an infected person, you can independently shorten the ten days to seven days if you are symptom-free for at least 48 hours beforehand. A negative official rapid test or PCR test is required for curtailment. For PCR tests, a test with a CT value above 30 is also sufficient to terminate isolation.

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For employees in hospitals, nursing homes and other medical facilities, free testing always requires a PCR test to be submitted to the employer.

In addition, infected persons must independently inform their contacts of the infection as soon as possible in the last two days. These are those persons with whom there has been contact for a period of more than ten minutes and at a distance of less than 1.5 meters without wearing a mask on both sides, or persons with whom a poorly ventilated or unventilated room has been shared for an extended period of time.

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For children in daycare facilities and schoolchildren, the quarantine period with testing can even be shortened to five days. However, if symptoms appear during quarantine, a test must be performed immediately.

Contacts from another household than that of the infected person (for example, friends met at sports or in a restaurant) do not automatically have to be quarantined. You don’t have to go into quarantine until the health department specifically orders it. If this is the case, the same rules apply for the duration and shortening as for infected persons and contacts living in the same household of an infected person.

However, if symptoms appear in contacts from other households, the following also applies to them: Immediately go into self-isolation and perform a test.