Frankfurt, Jan. 10 (BNA): German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said on Sunday that Germany will study the reliability of rapid antigen tests in detecting the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19.
“We don’t know exactly how well these tests of Omicron will work,” Lauterbach said on public broadcaster ARD, adding that evaluation results would become available within the next few weeks.
Scientist and physician Lauterbach said it was clear, however, that “the alternative to not testing at all… would be very dangerous.”
Earlier, he told Sunday’s newspaper that Germany must revamp its COVID-19 vaccination strategy to deal with the Omicron variant and to ensure that it can quickly develop a new vaccine if it encounters a more deadly type of coronavirus in the future. New measures for takeout and bar visits were only introduced last Friday.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for Infectious Diseases said Omicron now accounts for 44% of coronavirus infections in Germany.
On Sunday, RKI recorded 36552 new coronavirus cases reported within 24 hours, triple the number in the previous week.
The lower house of the Bundestag will soon debate a bill to mandate a public vaccination that is backed by companies and the public sector, but has been delayed amid uncertainty over united support for it within the three-party coalition government.
Lauterbach, of the SPD, is a strong supporter of compulsory vaccinations, and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann of the FDP in an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday urged parliament to make a decision on the issue soon.
However, the Green Party parliamentary leader, Britta Haselman, said in an interview with the Funke media group that the parties should discuss the issue internally first.
“It’s not an easy decision,” she said. “It’s deeply intrusive.”
HF