German Health Minister Jens Spahn has called on the people of the country to be patient with the speed of the launch of the coronavirus vaccine.
Spahn, who spoke at a news conference Wednesday, said the first step was to vaccinate all those in need of care and the country’s largest.
He said nearly 400,000 people in Germany had been vaccinated so far.
Figures from the Robert Koch Institute, the national agency for disease control and prevention, show that 367,331 vaccines have been administered, with 150,000 in nursing homes and about 176,000 medical personnel who received the shot.
Germany lags behind the UK, which has been vaccinated around 1.3 million people from Tuesday. But it is ahead of France, which has also drawn criticism for a slow start to its vaccination implementation, which has administered 516 shots before 1 January. his Minister of Health. So far Italy has managed almost 250,000 inoculations.
Spahn added that these were days of confidence for Germany.
But he also said he understood the impatience of the population.
The truth is that the vaccine is a scarce commodity in the world, ”he said.
“That’s why we need to ask for patience from large parts of the population,” said Spahn, who explained that the situation was no different in the European Union or beyond.
Spahn said the reason for the launch speed was called limited production capacity.
The good news: there will be enough vaccine in Germany, “he said.
Spahn said the hope was to be able to offer a vaccine to everyone in the summer.
“Today we expect a second authorization for the Modern Vaccine,” he said, referring to a pending decision by the European Medicines Agency on the Modern Vaccine on Wednesday.
“We expect Modern vaccine delivery to begin early next week.”