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Vaccination center in the Frisian town of Schortens (archive picture)
Photo: Mohssen Assanimoghaddam / dpa
Because of a breakdown in the cold chain, 600 additional doses of vaccine were administered at short notice in Lower Saxony in the Friesland district.
On Wednesday afternoon, the district had called on Frisians without a vaccination appointment to make their way to the vaccination center in Schortens as soon as possible by early evening.
"There was a big rush," said a district spokeswoman. Around 1000 people came to the call. Because of the heat, helpers provided those waiting with bottles of water. Since not enough vaccine doses were available for everyone, many had to be canceled again, said the spokeswoman. But they would have reacted understandingly.
When the vaccination doses from the manufacturer Biontech / Pfizer arrived at the vaccination center, it was found that the cooling temperature had not been maintained throughout, said the spokeswoman.
Why this came about was initially unclear.
After consulting the State Health Office, the substance therefore had to be administered immediately and completely.
Of the total of 1200 doses, half were already scheduled for vaccinations on Wednesday.
Because of the additional vaccinations on Wednesday, no vaccination appointments that have already been made should be canceled on the following days.
Breakdown in May - saline instead of vaccine
In Schortens there was already a vaccination failure at the beginning of May: on April 21, an employee of the DRK in the Schortens vaccination center accidentally dropped an ampoule with Biontech.
Actually, she should just have reported this bug.
However, the woman covered it up by filling six syringes with saline solution instead of the vaccine - not harmful to those affected, but ineffective.
A few days later, the woman confessed to a colleague who reported the incident.
Since it could no longer be traced who had received one of the affected syringes, the district subsequently contacted all 197 people who had been vaccinated during the period in question.
oka / dpa