Germany plans aggressive Covid-19 vaccine rollout after slow start

In April, May and June, vaccination centers and doctors will have to handle millions of doses every week, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said.

Germany will drastically speed up its vaccination campaign in the next few weeks with as many as 10 million weekly inoculations from the end of March, according to Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on February 12, 2021 a healthcare worker fills a syringe with the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at the university hospital in Halle/Saale, eastern Germany. - Germany's vaccine commission has now recommended the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine against Covid-19 for people over the age of 65, the health ministry said Wednesday. Germany had previously said it lacked sufficient data to greenlight the jab for older people, but has changed its position following recent studies. (Photo by JENS SCHLUETER / AFP) (AFP)

In April, May and June, vaccination centers and doctors will have to handle millions of doses every week, Scholz said in an interview with ZDF television on Sunday night. “And I have seen to it that this will be well prepared for.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has come under fire for the country’s slow coronavirus vaccination campaign. Germany has so far given 8.8 shots per 100 people, according to the Bloomberg vaccine tracker. That compares with more than 27 doses in the US and almost 35 in the UK.

A rate of 10 million per week would be a rapid acceleration in Germany’s vaccination campaign. The country used a total of 7.33 million doses since inoculations started ten weeks ago, according to the tracker.

In a move that will likely aid the rollout effort, Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine is expected to be accepted at the European level this week, European Union internal markets chief Thierry Breton said on France 2 television. He said that the EU would double its monthly vaccine production and would see output of 90 million to 100 million doses a month by the end of March.

“This month we will have even fewer vaccines, which means we have to supplement priorities and add flexibility,” Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Soeder told ARD television on Monday. “There is a feeling of ‘We could have more freedom if we were able to tackle the organizational hurdles’ like the fact that there aren’t enough vaccines available and that the bureaucracy surrounding immunization is so rigid,” he added.

Germany’s sluggish vaccination pace has contributed to the need for a longer lockdown, with Merkel last week extending most curbs to March 28. Her government also unveiled a plan to gradually relax virus restrictions, but a further easing is dependent on a slowdown in Covid-19 infection rates.