Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – The North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Health has rejected criticism of the implementation of the institution-related vaccination requirement in the corona pandemic. The ministry was not aware that the health authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia would not ban access for unvaccinated employees in hospitals and nursing homes, a spokesman told the dpa on Tuesday. According to a query by the ministry in the municipalities (as of August 26, 2022), 2,206 fine procedures and 533 bans on entering the country have been issued since the introduction in mid-March of this year. Five of the cities contacted provided no or only incomplete data in response to the request. According to the State Statistical Office, almost 300,000 people work in NRW’s healthcare system in hospitals and almost 170,000 in old people’s homes.
The higher administrative court for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, based in Münster, had finally rejected the application of an unvaccinated secretary of a hospital in an urgent procedure on Monday. According to the judges, the health department in Gelsenkirchen had rightly issued a ban on entering her workplace because the woman could not show any immunity to Covid-19. The Higher Administrative Court noted in the resolution on the Infection Protection Act that “no bans (…) are issued across the board, which should also not be compatible with the purpose of the regulation”.
The implementation of the partial vaccination requirement to protect people who are particularly at risk, which applies nationwide until the end of 2022, is handled differently in the federal states. In some regions of Germany, the health authorities should check carefully whether people in homes and hospitals can still be cared for if unvaccinated employees are banned from entering.
In the state of Berlin, for example, it is said that the facility-related vaccination requirement will be implemented taking into account the security of supply. This means that the health authorities assess how much health care could be at risk and can suspend a procedure on this basis if necessary. In Saarland, on the other hand, the responsible ministry insisted on enforcing compulsory vaccination.
