No more mandatory Coronavirus tests at Berlin daycare centers

Bobbycars liegen in einer Kita in einer Einzäunung.

The Corona test obligation at daycare centers in Berlinwill be dropped on May 8, 2022.

This was announced by the Senate Department for Education on Thursday (April 28, 2022), referring to the current decline in the number of infections. In the future, tests will be done on an as-needed basis. This applies especially if there have been Coronavirus cases in a daycare center or if a person has had contact with an infected person. The state of Berlin will provide the daycare providers with quality-assured nasal tests for this purpose, it said.

Currently still several tests per week

Currently, daycare children and employees still have to be tested several times a week. For children older than one year who are neither vaccinated nor recovered, three tests per week are required. Employees who are neither vaccinated nor recovered must be tested every working day.

Senate Department for Education appeals to parents

In a letter to parents, the education administration points out that children with Covid symptoms, as with other illnesses, should generally not attend the daycare center. If parents nevertheless wish to do so despite, for example, slight symptoms of a cold in their child, they must provide the daycare center with written confirmation of a negative test, or a test must be carried out on site.

Procedure for schools not yet decided

The Senate Department for Education wants to determine the further procedure for Berlin schools after an exchange with hygiene advisory board, parents' representatives and school managements in the coming week. "We are still in the vote," said Education Senator Astrid-Sabine Busse (SPD) in the relevant committee of the House of Representatives on this. On Friday, the state parents' committee will meet, and next week the hygiene advisory board.