Thuringia stops granting vaccination appointments due to AstraZeneca delivery problems
Due to drastic delivery problems of the AstraZeneca corona vaccine, Thuringia is temporarily stopping appointments for vaccinations and postponing the start of vaccinations for general practitioners. Thuringia’s Minister of Health Heike Werner (Linke) described the announced delivery cut as “absolutely unacceptable”, as Werner’s ministry announced on Saturday. The manufacturer AstraZeneca announced on Friday that instead of the last 220 million cans targeted, only 100 million should be delivered to the EU countries by the middle of the year. The group justified this with export restrictions, among other things.
31,200 AstraZeneca vaccination doses were to be delivered to Thuringia the next week and the following week. According to the Ministry of Health, it will now only be 9,600.
Werner criticized Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU), who asked the federal states in February not to withhold any AstraZeneca vaccine doses because the delivery quantities were safe. “That’s exactly what we did and planned every single dose of the vaccine. Now the announcement from the Federal Ministry of Health is forcing us to stop our appointments and to postpone the involvement of general practitioners, ”said Werner. This is more than annoying. “This also means that the last spark of trust in binding commitments has been extinguished. I call on the Federal Minister of Health to intervene immediately. “
Originally, a model project was supposed to start in Thuringia in March, in which general practitioners should also carry out corona vaccinations for the first time. The aim of the project was primarily to vaccinate older people at home who do not live in a facility and who also find it difficult to get to the vaccination centers.
According to the Ministry of Health, 10,800 Moderna vaccine doses should be used for this, the delivery of which is expected in the coming week. Now, however, vaccines from Biontech / Pfizer or Moderna must be used for vaccination appointments that have already been booked and at which AstraZeneca doses should be used. In addition, the ministry stopped assigning appointments for the last open appointments in the East Thuringian vaccination center in Gera on Friday.
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