display
Mainz (dpa / lrs) - When appointments for corona vaccinations started outside of old people's and nursing homes in Rhineland-Palatinate, there was a "big rush", according to Health Minister Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler (SPD).
28,000 appointments had been registered by 2 p.m., she said on Monday in Mainz.
"We're very happy about that."
In addition to this “impressive number”, there are 15,000 open registrations for which the relevant e-mails have been sent to the citizens, but the recipient is still pending confirmation.
Most of the appointments were made on the website www.impftermin.rlp.de, which at times recorded up to 500,000 hits, she said.
There were temporary technical difficulties.
But the “initial stability problems” had been resolved before 10 a.m.
“And a technical error when checking the postcodes was also fixed very quickly.
All servers have been updated since 12 noon and form processing works, ”she said.
"It was to be expected that the lines would reach their limits at the start, just as it was also the case in other federal states in which the scheduling started," she added.
Relatives of those eligible for vaccination had reported problems with registrations in the morning.
In the meantime, the hotline was not available, nor was the website.
In addition, the site sometimes collapses and the registration process is complicated, it said.
display
Appointments for people over the age of 80 and the employees of outpatient rescue and care services as well as intensive care units in one of the 31 vaccination centers in the country started at 8 a.m.
In the first six hours, more than 1,445 appointments were made on the telephone hotline.
All registered persons who are authorized to vaccinate should receive their two specific vaccination appointments as well as an information sheet, which should be filled out at the vaccination appointment, by email or post within a few days.
According to the ministry, those who have been given an appointment must identify themselves prior to vaccination to ensure that the age information was correct.
The other persons entitled to vaccinate will be asked about their professional activity.
You have to prove this at the vaccination appointment, otherwise you will be sent away again.
People who have not yet been approved for a corona vaccination should not call the call center yet.
The vaccination centers open this Thursday.
The minister advised all interested parties to use the online procedure.
Those who are not able to do this can of course also call the hotline.
display
According to the minister, the people in Rhineland-Palatinate adhere to the given prioritization when making appointments - “that is remarkable”.
The fact that appointments were made quickly and that there was great interest ensured that the existing and foreseeable available doses could actually be vaccinated to a very large extent in the Rhineland-Palatinate with the highest priority in the coming days and weeks, she said.
The prerequisite for this is that enough vaccine is available.
The ministry is aiming for 125,000 first vaccinations in the centers by mid-February.
Up to this point in time, the dates are currently being assigned.
If everything is going well, for example enough vaccine and registrations are available, it should be possible to vaccinate 7200 people per day in the centers.
According to Bätzing-Lichtenthäler, vaccinations will only be available in the second half of the year for the broad mass of the population who do not belong to a prioritized group.
That could then probably also happen with the resident doctors.
The number of vaccinated elderly and care facilities has recently increased significantly after the start was slower, "than we would have liked," said the minister.
In these homes, 8,282 people - people over 80 and staff - had been vaccinated against the virus by 6 p.m. on Sunday evening.
She announced that she would be launching an information campaign for the care facilities and hospitals together with the Nursing Chamber and Nursing Society, aimed specifically at the employees there.
display
CDU parliamentary group leader Christian Baldauf criticized: “There must be no long waiting loops on the phone or incorrect registration pages on the net.
It was clear that the rush would be big. "
He suggested that the appointment hotline be equipped with more staff so that “waiting loops do not become an ordeal for older people”.
The health authorities in Rhineland-Palatinate registered 546 new corona infections at the beginning of the week.
The total number since the beginning of the pandemic rose to 74,986 (as of 11:10 a.m.), as the state investigation office announced on Monday.
Accordingly, 17 084 people in the country are currently infected with the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
This is the lowest value since December 9th.
The number of patients who died with or from Covid-19 rose by 55 to 1,531 within 24 hours.
Ironically, on the first day of school of the new year in Rhineland-Palatinate, massive technical problems arose on the most important platform for digital learning.
The servers provided for this purpose - i.e. high-performance computers for external access - were temporarily unavailable on Monday.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Education named a hacker attack as the cause.
Experts are working flat out to solve the problems.
To contain the corona pandemic, the schools in Rhineland-Palatinate should remain in distance learning until mid-January.
Information from the state government about Corona and vaccinations
Vaccination rate monitoring by the RKI