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By Gabriele Starck
Vienna – Austria’s vaccination strategy to protect against Covid 19 disease is ready and will be approved by the Council of Ministers today. The Minister of Health, Rudolf Anschober, and his special representative for health, Clemens-Martin Auer, presented the first details to the public yesterday:
1️⃣ Who should and can get vaccinated and when? The sequence of vaccinations will depend on the date of approval and subsequently on the quantity that the manufacturers can produce and supply. The BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine is expected to be the first to be approved in December. In January and early February, the special representative for health, Clemens-Martin Auer, expects one million doses for 500,000 people in Austria. These would be used for the first time in January in nursing homes and nursing homes for residents and staff, for which around 150,000 units are needed. It is followed by health personnel from hospitals and private practice, paramedics and high-risk groups and, in general, those over 65 years of age.
Meanwhile, due to new vaccine approvals, another two million doses of vaccines are likely to arrive in Austria in February / March, which are initially reserved for teachers, kindergarten teachers, the executive and the judiciary. Auer estimates that from April there will be enough vaccines available for everyone. “We suppose that in the third quarter we vaccinated everyone who wanted it.”
2️⃣ Will there be mandatory vaccination? No, no one will be required to get vaccinated, the federal government promises. But it is also clear that the virus can only be stopped if a high vaccination rate is achieved. The more people that get vaccinated, the lower the risk of someone getting seriously ill with Covid-19. Anschober wants a vaccination rate of 50 percent plus X, “the X is capitalized”, as he puts it. It should also be noted that there may be countries that require a vaccination to enter the country, and some airlines have already announced that they will only allow vaccinated passengers on board. AUA’s parent, Lufthansa, is not one of them on its own.
3️⃣ How does the vaccination work and how long will it last? For the three vaccines that are likely to be approved in the near future, two partial vaccines are needed. The second injection is given three to four weeks after the first. Unlike the flu vaccine, which must be tailored each year to the strain likely to prevail, Covid vaccines probably don’t need to be changed. And more recent US studies raise hope that a vaccine can work for years.
📽️ Video | The three phases of the corona vaccination strategy in Austria
4️⃣ What vaccines are available? The European Union has secured contingents for seven candidate vaccines. As of yesterday, this includes the corona vaccine from the American manufacturer Moderna, which is considered very promising. The EU Commission has negotiated a framework agreement for up to 160 million cans, which will be formally sealed today. The EU now has contracts with the manufacturers of the three vaccines, which are given the best chance of rapid approval in the coming weeks. The third is AstraZeneca, which is based on conventional technology and will probably be used in the private sector because it does not require freezing and therefore there are no vaccination centers. Austria is entitled to two percent of all vaccines and receives them at the same time as all other EU countries.
© APA
