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Berlin (dpa) - After the slow start of the corona vaccinations, the second stage of the vaccination campaign in Germany is now beginning: This week, 35,000 family doctors nationwide want to get started with vaccinations against the corona.
Some practices are already starting today, others are still waiting for the vaccine and want to follow suit in the next few days.
Since the start of the vaccination campaign at the end of December, the vaccines have mainly been administered in the 430 vaccination centers nationwide.
Initially, GPs only have a limited range available.
In the first week, all practices receive a total of 940,000 vaccine doses.
In purely mathematical terms, that's a good 26 doses per practice.
In the week of April 26th, however, there is a significant boost, when the practices can expect a total of more than three million doses.
For the first time, that would be more than for the vaccination centers.
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In general, the order of who can be vaccinated first also applies to general practitioners' practices.
There is no central invitation for patients, as the Federal Ministry of Health explains.
The practices can regulate how they assign vaccination appointments - for example by telephone or with online bookings.
Individual doctors have been vaccinating - also in the course of model projects - for some time, in Bavaria vaccination started in 1635 practices last week.
This means that the next step in the vaccination campaign is now increasingly in focus.
The Association of Private Health Insurance (PKV) is calling on the federal government to speed up the planned vaccinations in the companies, as association director Florian Reuther told the German Press Agency in Berlin.
"The start of the vaccination campaign by general practitioners is the right step, but it is not enough to bring the corona vaccination protection to as many people as possible as quickly as possible," said the director of the PKV Association.
"Politicians must already prepare the next step and enable vaccination in the companies and with all other groups of doctors and dentists as soon as vaccine deliveries rise as expected in the next few weeks."
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Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) said at the end of March that company doctors should only join the vaccination campaign after family doctors.
"It's still too short," he said of the available vaccine.
He finds it difficult to vaccinate younger company employees as long as the older ones are not yet protected.
Reuther said that the infrastructure of the company doctors was particularly suitable.
"We have already received numerous inquiries from health insurance companies whose company doctors are immediately available to vaccinate the workforce - but are unfortunately not yet allowed to order a vaccine."
Many companies have also offered to vaccinate the family members of employees.
From Reuther's point of view, this would also make sense.
He called on the federal government to solve the necessary organizational issues now - "and not only when the vaccines are piling up in the yard".
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210406-99-94916 / 2