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Due to the rush of the first flu vaccination day on Monday in St. Pölten, the health department no longer has stocks of free vaccines available. The city council announced Tuesday that the supply ran out. During the vaccination campaigns every Monday (9:00 am to 10:30 am) and Thursday (1:00 pm to 2:30 pm), only pneumococcal vaccination is offered. According to the magistrate, “there are still sufficient reserves and from the current point of view there are no delivery problems.”
The situation in Klagenfurt is similar. In a day with hundreds of calls and a temporarily overloaded online registration system, the available vaccine for this year, 2,800 doses, is out of stock, city media said. After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, an attempt was made to increase the usual quota, but failed.
Due to Covid-19, higher demand was already expected, but the rush was still surprising. The mayor of Klagenfurt, Maria-Luise Mathiaschitz, and the councilor for health, Franz Petritz (both SPÖ), called on the federal government to “urgently increase the quota of vaccines and distribute it fairly.” Vienna is preferred when it comes to the allocation of vaccination doses. Petritz: “There is already a severe flu vaccine shortage in Austria and there is an urgent need for action.”
Assignment according to the “greyhound principle”
The vaccination doses of the Klagenfurt health department were not assigned according to risk groups, but according to the first-hand principle: whoever passed first got the appointment. Klagenfurters who do not yet have a vaccine and wish to be vaccinated should seek free quotas at pharmacies and resident doctors or try their luck in another district.
In Villach, the award began on Tuesday, said Councilor Christian Pober (ÖVP), online registration will begin on (tomorrow) Wednesday. This year, instead of the usual 1,000 doses of vaccination, 1,500 were ordered and an option for another 500.
