Vaccination is progressing well, on the other side of the Rhine.
Half of the German population has received at least a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, Health Minister Jens Spahn announced on Friday.
"The vaccination campaign is progressing rapidly," he said during a press conference.
“More than one in two Germans has been vaccinated at least once, that is to say 50.1%, or 41.5 million people”.
Almost six months after the start of the vaccination campaign, 29.6% of the population is fully vaccinated, or nearly a third of the 82 million inhabitants, he detailed, saying he wanted to continue on "this high pace".
The Minister of Health also confirmed that all adults living in Germany will have the opportunity to receive a first dose by the end of July.
Mehr als die Hälfte der Menschen in Deutschland hat bisher mindestens eine #CoronaSchutzimpfung erhalten.
Jede Impfung hilft!
# ÄrmelHoch pic.twitter.com/WmSlC5s1GF
- BMG (@BMG_Bund) June 18, 2021
After a sluggish start, the vaccination campaign in Germany experienced a strong acceleration thanks, in particular, to larger deliveries of sera authorized for injection into the European Union.
By comparison, according to the latest figures, 46.9% of the French population has received at least one dose and 25.9% has finished their vaccination cycle.
Concern about the Delta variant
During his speech, the German Minister of Health also called for vigilance as the Delta variant, initially detected in India and more contagious, should eventually become the most common variant in Germany.
"The question is not to know if but when the Delta variant will be (the variant) dominant", insisted Jens Spahn, referring to a current level of contamination which is certainly "low" but "a relatively strong increase" in recent weeks.
"The challenge is that this variant of the virus is particularly infectious" and that it can lead to "a questioning of the successes obtained in the fight against the pandemic", he said, referring to the case of United Kingdom "which is currently experiencing it very painfully".
But he still wanted to be optimistic, assuring that the country would "be able to have a good summer", while the number of infections has dropped drastically for weeks. This Friday, Germany recorded 1076 new infections in 24 hours, according to the Robert-Koch health watch institute (RKI).
