As the country begins to reopen, it relies on extensive, free antigen testing to ensure that anyone who has not been vaccinated against the coronavirus will not be infected.
Berlin-Want to dine indoors in Germany? Take the test. Want to stay in a hotel or exercise in the gym as a tourist? The same answer.
For many Germans who have not yet been vaccinated, the key to freedom of the new coronavirus comes from the end of the nasal swab, and rapid testing centers have doubled the speed normally reserved for the country’s highways.
Abandoned cafes and nightclubs have been converted. The wedding tent has been reused. Even the back seats of bicycle taxis have new uses, because tourists have been replaced by Germans wiped off by testers wearing full protective equipment.
Germany is one of the few countries that have bet on tests and vaccines to defeat the pandemic. The idea is to find potentially infected people before they join the crowd in concert halls and restaurants and spread the virus.
The test system is far from most parts of the United States. In many parts of the United States, people start to eat indoors or sweat together in the gym, with almost no requirements. Even in the UK, where the government provides free quick tests and school children have taken more than 50 million tests since January, for most adults, they are not part of their daily lives.
But in Germany, people who want to participate in various types of indoor social activities or personal care need to undergo a negative rapid test that does not exceed 24 hours.
There are now 15,000 temporary testing centers across the country—more than 1,300 in Berlin alone. These centers are funded by the government, and the government spends hundreds of millions of euros on temporary networks. A task force led by two cabinet ministers is ensuring that schools and daycare centers have enough of these rapid antigen tests to test children at least twice a week.
In addition, since it was first launched earlier this year, DIY kits have become ubiquitous in supermarket checkout counters, pharmacies and even gas stations.
German experts said they believe that testing will help reduce the number of virus cases, but the evidence is not yet clear.
Professor Ulf Dittmer, director of virology at the University Hospital of Essen in the western city, said: “We see that the rate of infection here is falling faster than in other countries with similar vaccinations.” “And I think. Part of it is related to extensive testing.”
Nearly 23% of Germans are fully vaccinated, which means they do not need to show test results. Another 24% of people who received only one dose of the vaccine and those who were not vaccinated were still vaccinated, although as of Tuesday, there were only 20.8 infections per 100,000 people in a week, which was never before the start of the second wave in early October. I’ve seen the spread of numbers.
Throughout the pandemic, Germany has been a world leader in extensive testing. It was one of the first countries to develop a test to detect the coronavirus and relied on the test to help identify and break the chain of infection. By last summer, everyone who returned to Germany on vacation in a country with a high infection rate was being tested.
Due to the relatively slow start of the German vaccine campaign, the current test is considered particularly important. The country insisted on buying vaccines with the European Union and found itself in trouble because Brussels was faltering in securing vaccination fast enough. The U.S. population that has been fully vaccinated is almost twice its population.
51-year-old Uwe Gottschlich was one of the people who was tested to return to normal life. On a recent day, he was sitting in the comfort of the back of a bicycle taxi that used to take tourists around Berlin’s central landmarks.
Karin Schmoll, the manager of the bicycle taxi company, has now been retrained for testing. Wearing a green full-body medical suit, gloves, mask and face shield, she approached, explained the procedure, and then asked him to take it off. Put on the mask so that she can gently probe his nostrils with a swab.
“I will meet some friends later,” he said. “We plan to sit down and have a drink.” Berlin asked for a test before drinking indoors, but not outdoors.
Professor Dittmer said that although antigen tests are not as sensitive as PCR tests, and PCR tests take longer, they are good at finding people with high viral loads who are at greater risk of infecting others. The test system is not without criticism. Generous government funding aims to make it easier for people to be tested and to establish a center—a political response to the slow and overly bureaucratic vaccine movement.
But prosperity has led to accusations of waste. After allegations of fraud in recent weeks, German Health Minister Jens Spahn (Jens Spahn) was forced to meet with state legislators.
The federal government spent 576 million euros, or 704 million U.S. dollars, for its test program in March and April. The data for May has not yet been released, when the number of private testers surged.
Although quick tests are available in other countries/regions, they are not necessarily the cornerstone of a daily reopening strategy.
In the United States, antigen tests are widely available, but they are not part of any national testing strategy. In New York City, some cultural venues, such as the Park Avenue Armory, provide on-site rapid antigen testing as an alternative method of proving vaccination status in order to gain entry, but this is not common. Widespread vaccination also limits the need for rapid testing.
In France, only at events or venues with more than 1,000 people attending, proof of recent Covid-19 recovery, vaccination, or coronavirus test negative is required. Italians only need to provide a negative certificate to participate in weddings, baptisms or other large-scale ceremonies, or to travel outside of their hometown.
The idea of free testing in Germany first started in the university town of Tubingen in the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg. A few weeks before Christmas last year, the local Red Cross set up a tent in the city center and began to conduct free rapid antigen testing to the public. Only those who test negative can enter the city center to visit the shops or the stalls of the shrunken Christmas market.
In April, the governor of Saarland in the southwest launched a statewide plan to allow people to test their free ways, such as partying and drinking or watching a performance at the Saarbrücken National Theater. Thanks to the test plan, Saarbrück Ken National Theater became the only theater in the country to open in April. Up to 400,000 people are wiped every week.
Those who are lucky enough to participate in the show-wearing masks and testing negative-are very excited about this opportunity. When Sabine Kley rushed to her seat to watch the German premiere of “Macbeth Underworld” on April 18, she exclaimed: “I am very excited to be here for a whole day. This is great, I feel safe.”
In recent weeks, German states with fewer cases have begun to cancel some testing requirements, especially for outdoor dining and other activities that are considered low-risk. But some German states are reserving them for tourists to stay overnight, attend concerts, and dine in restaurants.
She said that for the Berlin bicycle taxi company, managed by Ms. Schmoll, setting up a test center is a way to put idle vehicles back into use, adding that the business was particularly active this weekend.
“Today is going to be a busy day because it is the weekend and people want to go out and play,” said Ms. Schmoer, 53, as she watched outside waiting in line for people sitting on her tricycle. The most recent Friday.
For people who are tested like Mr. Gottschlich, the swab is a small price to pay for getting rid of the pandemic rules.
Emily Anthes contributed reporting from New York, Aurelien Breeden from Paris, Benjamin Mueller from London, Sharon Otterman from New York, and Gaia Pianigiani from Italy.
Post time: Jun-28-2021