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Covid-19 vaccinations: what about in the federal states?
Photo: DER SPIEGEL
When the first batches of the Biontech vaccine were delivered on December 26, 2020, many were amazed at how small the packages were.
North Rhine-Westphalia's State Chancellery had posted a video that showed the packaged vaccination doses on a truck bed: two cardboard boxes that would have fit on a wheelbarrow.
The delivery on December 26th was actually very small: it consisted of only 9750 cans per federal state.
On December 28 and 30, Biontech then delivered significantly more - 282,750 cans to North Rhine-Westphalia alone.
The next batches came on January 8th.
According to the planning of the Federal Ministry of Health, a total of 2,008,500 doses would have to be delivered nationwide.
But most of the vaccine is still stored well chilled in the depot: By the morning of January 8, only around 530,000 doses had been inoculated - a little more than a quarter of the deliveries planned up to then.
"It's getting better and better," said Health Minister Spahn in a discussion at the Federal Ministry of Health.
RKI boss Lothar Wieler adds that the contact restrictions still have to be strictly followed.
The main reason why so far only around half a million cans have been inoculated is probably that the federal states are withholding cans.
Two vaccinations about three weeks apart are required for effective immunization.
So that the second vaccination works even if the manufacturer Biontech has possible short-term delivery problems, 50 percent of the cans initially remain in the depot.
For the foreseeable future, the Germans will not be able to choose the vaccine either, as Spahn says.
"This is now due to the shortage at the beginning."
So far, the vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer as well as that from Moderna have been approved in the EU.
The manufacturer Astrazeneca could also apply for EU approval of its vaccine shortly.
The federal states are progressing at different speeds with the vaccinations: Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hesse have already vaccinated almost 40 percent of the doses delivered.
Baden-Württemberg, Saxony and Thuringia achieve a quota of around a fifth and below - see the following table.
According to the data available to SPIEGEL, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has already inoculated 57 percent of the cans delivered.
The country received just under 30,000 cans in December and another 15,000 in January.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, around 25,000 of them have already been used.
Biontech's delivery planned for yesterday, Friday, comprised 667,875 cans.
Five more deliveries of this size are to follow by February 16.
Unless something else comes up, a total of 5,347,875 cans should have been delivered.
According to the federal government, the first vaccines from the manufacturer Moderna should also be available in the first quarter.
According to the information, it is about two million doses.
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