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Laumann: new corona vaccine first for healthcare

2022-01-19T19:37:47.283Z


Laumann: new corona vaccine first for healthcare Created: 01/19/2022Updated: 01/19/2022 8:22 p.m Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU), Health Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. © Jonas Güttler/dpa/archive image The vaccination rate is only increasing slowly. According to the NRW Minister of Health, the new vaccine from Novavax should first be available in the important healthcare sector. With the facility


Laumann: new corona vaccine first for healthcare

Created: 01/19/2022Updated: 01/19/2022 8:22 p.m

Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU), Health Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia.

© Jonas Güttler/dpa/archive image

The vaccination rate is only increasing slowly.

According to the NRW Minister of Health, the new vaccine from Novavax should first be available in the important healthcare sector.

With the facility-related vaccination requirement, the health authorities are faced with another task.

According to Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU), corona vaccinations with the preparation from the US manufacturer Novavax should first be offered in the healthcare sector if there is high demand. The other corona vaccine, also popularly known as the “dead vaccine”, could be a bridge in the health sector for one or the other who has not yet been vaccinated, said Laumann on Wednesday in Düsseldorf in the state parliament’s health committee. "That's why my aim, together with other state health ministers, is that if this vaccine is scarce at the beginning, we will first use this vaccine as a priority in the health care facilities," he explained to the deputies.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced on Friday that vaccinations with Novavax can probably start in Germany at the end of February. The first shipment of 1.75 million doses is scheduled to be available from February 21. The NRW Ministry of Health also referred to this date accordingly.

The Novavax agent was recently approved as the fifth corona vaccine in the EU. Two doses are injected about three weeks apart. It is a protein vaccine. It is therefore based on a different technology than the previously available corona preparations. The effectiveness for protection against symptomatic infections was given by the EU medicines authority EMA at around 90 percent. Experts pointed out that not as much is known about the new vaccine as about the other preparations that have been in widespread use for some time.

The facility-related vaccination requirement, which will apply nationwide from mid-March, is to be implemented by the municipal health authorities, which are already heavily burdened.

"Basically, everything has now been wonderfully pressed on the local authorities," Laumann criticized the requirements at the federal level.

The system of the law "left out" the employers, who only had to report the unvaccinated in the affected areas in the days after March 15.

The so-called facility-related vaccination requirement stipulates that employees in facilities such as medical practices, clinics and nursing homes must prove by March 15 that they have been vaccinated or have recovered.

This is intended to better protect patients and those in need of care from corona infection.

According to Laumann, there is no other option in NRW than to give the task to the health authorities. The country does not have its own state structure for this, but will not leave the health authorities alone. A working group in the ministry is developing handouts or guidelines. “But it is easy to write such a vaccination requirement into law. The implementation of compulsory vaccination is another matter,” he emphasized. That will be a big challenge.

According to a survey that has just started and is therefore still incomplete, for which a good half of the facilities have so far submitted data, around six percent of the nursing staff are not vaccinated, according to the ministry. According to the current status, there are around 11,200 unvaccinated people who work in the homes. Accordingly, 3.3 percent of those in need of care were not vaccinated.

According to Laumann, the PCR test capacities have been expanded in NRW.

In the past, around 500,000 PCR tests per week were possible so that the results were available promptly.

According to the ministry, up to 930,000 PCR tests per week would now be possible in NRW.

According to this, 626,000 PCR tests were carried out in the past week.

If two thirds of the capacities are exhausted, this can lead to bottlenecks in individual areas.

more on the subject

Laumann: PCR test capacities expanded in NRW

Health authorities should implement compulsory vaccination in care

Doctors demand reliable delivery of Biontech vaccine doses

Laumann referred to efforts at the federal level to also prioritize certain people for the PCR tests if necessary.

The aim is to have results quickly, especially in the medical field, so that employees do not have to be in quarantine for an unnecessarily long time.

In the medical field, free testing is only possible with a PCR test.

According to Laumann, the particularly contagious omicron variant already causes around three quarters of the corona infections in NRW.

The many new infections have not yet been reflected in the burden on hospitals.

You have to see how that develops in the coming weeks.

Efforts to further increase the vaccination rate would continue: "We have to stay on the ball." dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-01-19

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