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Hamburg (dpa / lno) - On the first day of the free issue of FFP-2 masks for the elderly and risk groups, queues formed in front of some Hamburg pharmacies on Tuesday.
"We have a lot to do, some pharmacies no longer have masks," said the President of the Hamburg Chamber of Pharmacists, Kai-Peter Siemsen.
FFP-2 masks are particularly effective at filtering particles, but also do not offer 100 percent protection.
In front of his own pharmacy in Hamburg-Eilbek, a long line formed on Tuesday morning, as Siemsen reported.
At times he even ran out of FFP-2 masks.
The issue could only continue in the afternoon after masks were fetched from an external warehouse.
The Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) assumes costs of 2.5 billion euros and around 27 million beneficiaries across Germany.
"This affects people over 60, for example, asthmatics or those with heart disease," said the managing director of the Hamburg pharmacists' association, Thomas Friedrich.
In Hamburg there are around 600,000 people.
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Problems arose on Tuesday mainly because there was little time left for implementation, as Siemsen criticized.
Only last Wednesday he heard about the health minister's plans from the newspaper.
"With better preparation, risk patients would not have had to stand in long queues," emphasized the President of the Hamburg Chamber of Pharmacists.