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Friday, March 19, 2021
Resolutions after the vaccination summit
Merkel: “Unfortunately we will have to use the emergency brake”
Vaccination, vaccination, vaccination – that’s Chancellor Merkel’s motto. After a vaccination summit with the federal states, the head of government explains how to proceed in the slow vaccination campaign. The current numbers of corona cases are cause for concern.
In view of the current infection situation, Chancellor Angela Merkel estimates that the emergency brake agreed by the federal and state governments should be withdrawn if there is a persistent incidence of seven days out of 100. “The situation has developed very difficult”, said the chancellor after the vaccination summit with the federal states.
In Germany, an exponential growth in the number of cases can currently be observed. “I wish we could do without this emergency brake, but that will not be possible when I look at the development of recent days,” he emphasized with a view to the federal-state meeting on Monday.
In their conference call, the federal and state governments agreed that family physicians should routinely begin coronavirus vaccinations immediately after Easter. However, there is the possibility that countries will declare before March 22 that they will not participate. Due to the initially small amounts of vaccine available, vaccination in general practitioner practices will only start slowly.
The decision document mentions approximately one vaccination appointment per week. Turned into around 50,000 general practitioners in Germany, this means around 20 vaccination doses per consultation, a total of around one million vaccination doses. However, in the last week of April, nearly 3.2 million doses of vaccines are expected to reach general practitioners’ offices.
Additional doses for border countries
It was also agreed that five federal states should receive additional vaccination doses to protect against the entry of mutated coronaviruses by travelers from neighboring countries. This affects the Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate with its border with France, as well as Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia due to the high number of infections in the Czech Republic. According to the decision, Bavaria should receive 100,000 additional doses of vaccine, Saarland 100,000, Saarland 80,000, Thuringia 30,000 and Rhineland-Palatinate 20,000 doses. That adds up to 330,000 cans.
This vaccine is said to come from the additional delivery of 580,000 doses from the manufacturer Biontech / Pfizer, which this manufacturer has promised. The remaining 250,000 additional doses are scheduled for practice by general practitioners in the week after Easter.
Merkel asked for more speed when it comes to vaccinating. “We want, and from April we can also, be faster and more flexible,” he said. “We want the tried and true German thoroughness to be complemented with more flexibility.” The motto is: “vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.”
Fire Spahn? “Do not”
She would also be vaccinated with the Astrazeneca vaccine, the CDU politician responded to a corresponding question from a journalist. However, you want to wait until it is your turn according to the vaccination prioritization. Merkel said she doubted the drug had been discontinued in the meantime. It was correct “that we have had absolute transparency.” When asked if she could “get closer to the idea” of removing Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn, the chancellor clearly said “no.”
Facing the debate on the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, Merkel stressed that she would prefer a European order. At the same time, he did not rule out a solo German approach to approval: “If there was no European order, but I have no sign of that, then we would also have to take a German route alone.” The European Medicines Agency EMA is still testing Sputnik V.
