Hamburg, too, has now lifted the prioritization in its vaccination center with immediate effect.

The Senate announced on Monday.

Accordingly, from now on all Hamburgers can try to get an appointment for the corona vaccination in the vaccination center, and not only those who belong to one of the three priority groups.

Further evidence is also no longer necessary.

According to the health authorities, a good 10,000 appointments were bookable on Monday.

"All people who were to receive a priority vaccination had the opportunity in Hamburg to make an appointment for vaccination," said a statement from the Senate.

Matthias Wyssuwa

Political correspondent for Northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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    This means that the prioritization phase in the allocation of vaccination appointments ends completely in Germany's second largest city.

    Prioritization was still necessary for a long time due to the shortage of vaccine deliveries.

    The Federal Ministry of Health issued them on the basis of recommendations from the Standing Vaccination Commission; there were three groups prioritized based on age, previous illness or professional circumstances.

    Critical tones were therefore also heard from the Hamburg Senate when the lifting of the prioritization in Germany had already been discussed in May.

    It was suggested that vaccines would remain scarce for longer.

    Since June 7th, this prioritization has been lifted in medical practices all over the country - including in Hamburg - and company doctors can also vaccinate without prioritization.

    The resolution of the federal and state governments, however, contained the possibility that the states could maintain the prioritization in their vaccination centers in order to continue to vaccinate the particularly endangered groups with priority.

    Most recently only two vaccinations

    Hamburg announced early on that it would take advantage of this opportunity. Obviously, however, the demand for vaccination appointments from people from one of the three priority groups decreased significantly. For a long time, the vaccination center was mainly busy with second vaccinations. However, when more than 20,000 new appointments were recently set for the three prioritization groups, these were obviously no longer fully occupied. "More than 900,000 people, and thus around half of the people in Hamburg, have already received at least one corona vaccination," says the responsible Senator for Social Affairs, Melanie Leonhard (SPD).

    It was something very special how in the past few months the elderly, the sick and the most vulnerable in Hamburg had been protected very consistently, said Leonhard. “The last few months have also been nerve-wracking for all of us, because of course we would all have liked to make even faster progress,” she said. It will still take "several weeks" until everyone has their vaccination appointment behind them. Nevertheless, the time has come "when everyone should try to get a vaccination appointment, because that way you protect yourself and are part of the protection ring for your own family, friends and the whole city".