German regions plan to end mandatory COVID isolation

BERLIN (AP) — Four German regions plan to scrap rules requiring people infected with the coronavirus to isolate at home, arguing that the pandemic has evolved and it’s time for a different approach. The health ministry in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said Friday that the region and two of its neighbors, Bavaria and Hesse, as well as Germany’s northernmost state, Schleswig-Holstein, are working on details of new rules. Bavaria said that its blanket isolation mandate will end on Nov. 16. The state’s health minister said that the time is right to give people more individual responsibility. Germany’s federal health minister said the decision was a mistake.