BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is ordering vaccines for 2022 in case regular or booster doses are needed to keep the population immune to COVID-19 variants, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Saturday amid growing frustration in Europe against the slow rate of vaccination.
Spahn defended in an online city hall of health workers defending the progress in obtaining and administering vaccines, saying 2.3 million of the 83 million people in Germany have already received a dose.
European governments have come under fire over supply and production bottlenecks as vaccine manufacturers AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna have all announced delivery volume deliveries just as they expected to increase production.
Germany – Europe’s largest economy – was paralyzed by a second exclusion imposed in November, and many in the general public are envious of the faster vaccination in Britain, Israel and the United States.
“We’re actually ordering more vaccines by 2022 to have at least some on hand,” Spahn said. “No one knows if we need an amplifier … With the production capacity now being expanded, we will order vaccination as a precaution. If we do not need it, fine, but if we do, it will be available. “
Some of Germany’s powerful regional prime ministers took part in the chorus of criticism of the federal government on Saturday ahead of a meeting of a new task force for vaccination that will bring national and regional role players around the same table with pharmaceutical companies and representatives of the European Union.
The Bavarian Prime Minister, Markus Soeder, has proposed new rules so that the state can have a greater say in providing vaccines to those who need them most.
“We need an emergency vaccine economy in which the state sets clear rules,” he told the newspaper Die Welt, urging authorities to authorize Chinese and Russian vaccines for use in Europe.
Authorities reported 13,331 new infections in Germany and 794 deaths on Saturday, though the number of cases per 100,000 people dropped by three to 91 over seven days. The government says the number should be below 50 to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.
(Reported by Thomas Escritt; Edited by Clelia Oziel)