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Preparations for a corona vaccination
Photo: Mary Altaffer / AP
The number of new corona infections in Germany is increasing from record to record, and the seven-day incidence also recently reached a new daily high - on Tuesday the value was 312.4, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
In view of the rapidly increasing numbers, calls for faster booster vaccinations, the so-called booster vaccinations, have been loud in the past few days.
According to the RKI, around four million people have received such a vaccination so far.
This number could possibly increase significantly soon.
The chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) at the RKI, Thomas Mertens, was a guest on the ZDF talk show hosted by Markus Lanz on Tuesday evening.
Mertens announced that the Stiko would again advise on its recommendation for booster vaccinations on Wednesday.
"And that won't take long, and then the recommendation you are complaining about will come too," Mertens said to Lanz.
When the moderator asked from what age the Stiko would recommend booster vaccinations, Mertens replied at 18.
In other words: Mertens announced at Lanz that the Stiko will recommend the booster vaccinations for all people over the age of 18.
This is a clear deviation from the previous recommendation of the Standing Vaccination Commission.
Accordingly, the booster is recommended for people who are older than 70;
also for residents of care facilities as well as medical and nursing staff.
This recommendation should be refreshed six months after the second corona vaccination at the earliest.
In Germany, more than 56 million people and thus 67.6 percent of the total population are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
According to the RKI, 58.3 million people have been vaccinated against the virus at least once.
This corresponds to a rate of 70.1 percent.
The RKI assumes that probably more people are vaccinated among adults than the data suggests: 100% registration of the vaccinations cannot be achieved by the reporting system, according to the vaccination overview of the RKI.
Spahn: Booster vaccination possible before the end of the six-month period
Still-Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) spoke out on Tuesday in favor of enabling all people over the age of 18 to have a booster vaccination against the corona virus - even if the last vaccination was not six months ago. "The six-month interval for complete immunization for people aged 18 and over, as stipulated in the approval, is to be understood as a guideline which, of course, does not have to be adhered to to the exact day," says a letter from Spahn and the chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen all contract doctors in Germany. The "Tagesspiegel" quoted from it.
"You can therefore vaccinate every patient over the age of 18, even if they do not belong to the risk groups according to the current Stiko recommendation (...), promptly and before the end of the six months at your own discretion," shared Spahn and Alleys with.
aar / dpa