Enlarge image
Minister Karl Lauterbach
Photo: Florian Gaertner / photothek / IMAGO
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is relying on a quick booster campaign in Germany because of the more contagious Omikron variant.
The federal government must therefore ensure that sufficient vaccine is available.
The minister confirmed that the EU Commission had approved early deliveries of 35 million cans of Moderna (read more here).
He is also in talks with Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Portugal to buy more cans from there.
According to an inventory, 50 million cans are expected for the first quarter of 2022, but according to the strategy, the demand is 70 million cans, including 50 million boosters.
The SPD minister had previously complained about a shortage of vaccines (read an analysis here).
With the doses expected so far, the booster campaign would be too slow and would not be completed until the end of March, explained Lauterbach.
Therefore, the federal government is working on the procurement of more vaccine doses.
The federal government had already announced that it would buy an additional 80 million cans from Biontech through EU contracts.
Lauterbach said part of this could possibly come in the first quarter of 2022, otherwise probably in the second to fourth quarter.
The budget committee of the Bundestag had approved around 2.2 billion euros for this and for 12 million other cans that are to be procured directly.
Lauterbach reported that he obtained information from the British government and experts there about the Omikron distribution on Thursday.
Great Britain reports "very worrying figures".
That is why it is important to keep the distribution of the omicron variant in Germany as small as possible.
Wieler: "Christmas mustn't be a festival for Omikron"
The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, called for Christmas to be celebrated only in a small group.
"We all want to spend the holidays with family and friends, but we all have to work together to ensure that Christmas doesn't become a kickstart for Omikron," he said.
He "urged" citizens to spend the holidays in such a way that they would "not be a festival for the virus."
"Only spend this time with the smallest, closest circle of friends and family." When meeting people from risk groups, he recommended tests even if the vaccination was complete.
It is now a matter of generally preventing infections as much as possible so that Omikron cannot spread so quickly and the clinics are relieved before the number of cases then probably rises again.
In Germany, a few hundred cases with the variant in the reporting system have so far been transmitted, said Wieler.
as / dpa / AFP / Reuters
