German Capacity For Covid-PCR Tests Running Short?

 Well....this is a serious subject which is a bit amusing.

Back in early 2020....when Covid started up....just about everyone was worried that they were getting Covid when it was a regular cold/flu.  Doctors got into the middle of this and said....if you don't have symptom X, Y or Z.....we aren't applying the PCR test.  A cost factor?  To some degree....yes, and insurance companies didn't want people freaked out and demanding a PCR test every two weeks.

As weeks passed....along came the 'burger-test'....basically a cheap test that could be done at the local sports hall in your village or some modular building in the city.  Cost?  The government agreed to pay 18-Euro for what was a 3.50 Euro kit and one-tenth of a man-hour to administer/control.   Yeah, they overpaid.....we don't argue about that part.

But as time went by....the 'burger-test' was considered a 'lesser' qualified solution and the 'gold-standard' was the PCR test.

So labs around Germany were set to perform X-number of PCR tests and they never thought they'd ever max out on capability.

Toward the end of 2021.....here comes Omicron, and the test business goes up a notch or two.

The problem here....a whole bunch of regulations were written that you don't officially have Covid, unless the PCR test confirms this.  You can't be forced into a Covid quarantine situation unless the test is done.

At this point (Friday morning)....it now appears likely that a massive curtailment of PCR tests will occur.  It's called prioritization, for lack of a better term.  If you just have this 'burger-test' and show symptoms....the doctor will quarantine you.  If you don't do the 'burger-test' and just complain of flu-symptoms?  Well....the doctor might agree with you and just jot 'flu' down for a week of sick-leave.

All this angling toward the end of the epidemic?  They've basically written so many lines of regulation into the system, that it can't haul the 'mess' much further.  It won't surprise me the lab folks doing PCR tests report a 75-percent drop in test performance within the next six weeks.  Naturally.....some idiot would say the whole Covid thing went away because of declining PCR tests.  

You can grin and laugh over this.....but if you test less....you get fewer results, and that ends the situation in a fairly undramatic way.