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COVID-19 RULES

Four things to know about Germany’s paid-for Covid tests

How much will rapid Covid test cost? How can I prove I can't get vaccinated? And are there any exceptions to the '3G' rule? Here are four important things you may have missed about Germany's new paid-for Covid tests.

Published: 11 August 2021 17:37 CEST
Four things to know about Germany's paid-for Covid tests
A helper stands outside the testing station at Berlin Zoo. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Julian Stratenschulte

After meeting with the 16 state premiers on Tuesday, Chancellor Merkel announced in a press conference that the country’s ‘health pass’ scheme would be rolled out nationwide. From August 23rd, areas with a 7-day incidence of 35 new Covid infections per 100,000 people or more will require a health pass to access most indoor public spaces and events. 

That means that vaccinated and recovered people can simply flash their digital CovPass, PCR test or yellow booklet – while unvaccinated people will need a negative rapid test taken within the last 24 hours, or a PCR test taken in the last 48 hours.

To make matters worse for those who haven’t yet got their jabs, people will have to pay for their own rapid tests from October 11th. But there are exceptions.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: How Germany aims to increase vaccinations and control the Covid fourth wave

Here are four things to bear in mind when the new rules come into force. 

1. You don’t have to pay for a test if you can’t get vaccinated

Pregnant women, children and people with compromised immune systems are generally unable to get a jab even if they want one. In order to make the system fairer for people who haven’t chosen to remain unvaccinated, these groups of people will still be eligible for free tests, the government confirmed. This will also apply to anyone under-18, since the German Vaccines Commission hasn’t yet issued a recommendation for under-18s to be vaccinated.

READ ALSO: Germany opens vaccine centres for teenagers: What you need to know

So, how do you prove you fall into one of these categories? According to DPA, a letter from your GP will suffice. Or, if you’re under 18, you can also bring along some form of ID to prove your age. 

2. Tests could cost anywhere between €15 and €50 

As the Berliner Morgenpost reported on Wednesday, before rapid tests became free-of-charge, the costs of getting one varied wildly across providers. With a local GP, you might be expected to pay €15-25, while pharmacies charged around €29 and dedicated test stations charged between €30 and €50 for an antigen test. 

While the future cost of tests remains unclear, the government has said that it will be up to the market to decide how much they want to charge – so they could end up being pricey. At present, providers receive €11.50 per antigen test and €43 per PCR test from the government – though customers who aren’t eligible for free tests tend to pay more out of their own pocket. 

READ ALSO: When (and why) Germany plans to scrap free Covid tests for all

3. Very young children and school pupils won’t need tests 

To make life that little bit easier for families with vaccinated parents, children under 6 will be exempt for having to show a negative test – so they won’t have to be bundled off to the test centre ahead of a trip to the cinema or a stay in a hotel. 


School children will be able to show their pupil ID rather than a negative test, while children under 6 will be exempt from the ‘3G’ rule. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Jens Büttner

In addition, older school pupils who are regularly tested as school will be able to show their student ID as proof, rather than the test, according to Bavarian state premier Markus Söder.

When travelling into Germany from abroad, children under 12 (who are unable to get vaccinated) will be exempt from showing tests.

READ ALSO: Five things to know about Germany’s new Covid testing rules

4. Free tests will continue in workplaces and care homes

The government has indicated that employees will still be able to receive regular workplace tests free of charge in the coming months – possibly funded by their employers.

In addition, the elderly and disabled will continue to get free tests to ensure that Covid infections remain as low as possible among this highly vulnerable.

Full details of the new regulations will be set out in an upcoming piece of government legislation on tests – so we’ll keep you informed on that in the coming days. 

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COVID-19 RULES

End of the pandemic? What the expiry of Sweden’s Covid laws really means

With the expiry of Sweden's two temporary Covid-19 laws, the downgrading of the virus's threat classification, and the end of the last travel restrictions, April, officially at least, marks the end of the pandemic. We explain what it means.

Published: 1 April 2022 13:07 CEST
End of the pandemic? What the expiry of Sweden's Covid laws really means

What are the two laws which expire on April 1st? 

Sweden’s parliament voted last week to let the two temporary laws put in place to battle the Covid-19 pandemic expire on April 1st.

The first law is the so-called Covid-19 law, or “the law on special restrictions to limit the spread of the Covid-19 illness”, which was used during the pandemic to temporarily empower the authorities to limit the number of visitors to shops, gyms, and sports facilities. It also gave the government power to limit the number of people who could gather in public places like parks and beaches. 

The second law was the “law on temporary restrictions at serving places”. This gave the authorities, among other things, the power to limit opening times, and force bars and restaurants to only serve seated customers.  

What impact will their expiry have? 

The immediate impact on life in Sweden will be close to zero, as the restrictions imposed on the back of these two laws were lifted months ago. But it does means that if the government does end up wanting to bring back these infection control measures, it will have to pass new versions of the laws before doing so. 

How is the classification of Covid-19 changing? 

The government decided at the start of February that it would stop classifying Covid-19 both as a “critical threat to society” and “a disease that’s dangerous to the public” on April 1st.

These classifications empowered the government under the infectious diseases law that existed in Sweden before the pandemic to impose health checks on inbound passengers, place people in quarantine, and ban people from entering certain areas, among other measures. 

What impact will this change have? 

Now Covid-19 is no longer classified as “a disease that’s dangerous to the public”, or an allmänfarlig sjukdom, people who suspect they have caught the virus, are no longer expected to visit a doctor or get tested, and they cannot be ordered to get tested by a court on the recommendation of an infectious diseases doctor. People with the virus can also no longer be required to aid with contact tracing or to go into quarantine. 

Now Covid-19 is no longer classified as “a critical threat to society”, or samhällsfarlig, the government can no longer order health checks at border posts, quarantine, or ban people from certain areas. 

The end of Sweden’s last remaining Covid-19 travel restrictions

Sweden’s last remaining travel restriction, the entry ban for non-EU arrivals, expired on March 31st.  This means that from April 1st, Sweden’s travel rules return to how they were before the Covid-19 pandemic began. 

No one will be required to show a vaccination or test certificate to enter the country, and no one will be barred from entering the country because their home country or departure country is not deemed to have a sufficiently good vaccination program or infection control measures. 

Does that mean the pandemic is over? 

Not as such. Infection rates are actually rising across Europe on the back of yet another version of the omicron variant. 

“There is still a pandemic going on and we all need to make sure that we live with it in a balanced way,” the Public Health Agency’s director-general, Karin Tegmark Wisell, told SVT. 

Her colleague Sara Byfors told TT that this included following the “fundamental recommendation to stay home if you are sick, so you don’t spread Covid-19 or any other diseases”. 

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