According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), 1,048,160 vaccinations were received up to and including Friday. This corresponds to around 1.26 percent of the around 83 million people who live in Germany. According to the RKI, the vaccination rate is likely to be higher because the reports from the federal states are sometimes sent to the institute with some delay.
According to the RKI data, around half of the people have so far been vaccinated for professional reasons. This could be, for example, doctors and nurses with a very high risk of infection and staff in the care of the elderly. Most of the others were vaccinated because of their old age or because they live in a nursing home.
How much longer will Germany’s shopping streets look so deserted? Here the Limbecker Strasse in Essen
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For full vaccination protection, a second vaccination dose against the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen is necessary after about three weeks. After the second injection, it usually takes another week before full vaccination protection is assumed.
So far, only a few people have received a second dose of vaccine. Since the vaccination campaign began around three weeks ago, the number of complete vaccinations is likely to increase significantly in the coming days.
Easier transport for temperature-sensitive BioNTech vaccine
On Friday, an announcement by the US manufacturer Pfizer caused irritation that significantly fewer vaccines from Pfizer’s German partner BioNTech could be delivered in the coming weeks due to renovation work in a plant in Puurs, Belgium. BioNTech has since announced that a return to the previous schedule for deliveries will be possible from January 25th, and that deliveries will even be increased from February 15th. The effects of the bottleneck on Germany are initially unclear. No deliveries have been planned between January 18th and 25th. BioNTech / Pfizer’s vaccine was the first to be approved in the EU at the end of 2020, and the preparation from the US manufacturer Moderna is now also used in Germany and the EU.
An updated recommendation for action by the manufacturer BioNTech for its vaccine was included with relief. Accordingly, the preparation can now be transported as a finished dose in the syringe for up to six hours at 2 to 8 degrees.
Small puncture – big effect
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Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) spoke of good news, especially for those in need of care who are waiting at home for a vaccination. That helps in a very practical way in the fight against the pandemic, said Spahn of the German press agency. So far it has been recommended that already diluted vaccine-ready preparation should not be transported and that it should be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius until vaccination.
The federal and state governments are fighting for further tightening of the corona
In view of the continued high number of infections, the federal and state governments will again discuss further measures to combat the pandemic on Tuesday. The next meeting was originally planned for January 25th. There are new tightening of lockdowns in the room.
On Saturday morning, the Robert Koch Institute reported 18,678 new corona infections within 24 hours. The number of deaths rose by 980. The seven-day incidence, which indicates how many people per 100,000 people contracted the virus within a week, was 139.2. The aim of the policy is an incidence of less than 50 in order to be able to trace infection chains.
qu / uh (dpa, afp, rtr)
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