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Hanover (dpa / lni) - In Lower Saxony, general practitioners are to start corona vaccinations after Easter.

This was announced by Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) after the federal and state vaccination summit in Berlin on Friday.

"The doctors in Lower Saxony will be integrated into the vaccinations against corona infection from April 5," said Weil in a statement.

"This is real progress, which will be small at the beginning, but will accelerate the vaccination campaign considerably over the next few weeks and months."

The vaccination quantities in the individual medical practices are initially manageable.

They are initially intended to vaccinate older, less mobile people who cannot be easily reached by the vaccination centers.

"I am pleased that this will hopefully be able to protect another particularly vulnerable group in our society as quickly as possible," said Weil.

At first it was not known how many doses the general practitioners would get.

In the further weeks and months, according to Weil, the vaccination campaign should then pick up speed through the family doctors.

Thanks to the decentralized organization through the practices, hundreds of thousands of people could be reached within a short time - provided that enough vaccine is available.

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A test operation with vaccinations by general practitioners has been running in Lower Saxony since March 1st.

Initially, five medical practices in the districts of Leer, Wesermarsch and Uelzen as well as in the city and region of Hanover took part, followed by more.

According to earlier information from the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, around 9,000 medical practices have been available since the beginning of March.

With a vaccination rate of 8.1 percent for first vaccinations and 3.7 percent for second vaccinations, Lower Saxony is still just below the national average, according to figures published by the Robert Koch Institute on Friday.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210319-99-895267 / 2

RKI table on vaccination rates for the federal states