Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) has alerted Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) to more than 2,000 corona patients in intensive care units and an incidence that is increasing every day. Because 90 percent of seriously ill people are not vaccinated, Spahn apparently sees only one way to keep the intensive care units from collapsing during the fourth corona wave: a higher vaccination rate and, above all, fast so-called booster vaccinations for older and chronically ill people . Spahn suggests reopening vaccination centers in the federal states for this purpose: "In order to enable as many as possible a booster vaccination as quickly as possible, the federal states should make the vaccination centers, which they have been on stand-by since the end of September, ready to start again." Klaus Reinhardt, too , the President of the German Medical Association, calls for booster vaccinations, organized according to age cohorts,to organize again through vaccination centers.
Reinhard Bingener
Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.
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Timo Frasch
Political correspondent in Munich.
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Stefan Locke
Correspondent for Saxony and Thuringia based in Dresden.
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Rudiger Soldt
Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.
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Most of the state governments are not very enthusiastic about this.
For months they registered weak demand in the district and state vaccination centers, on some days the occupancy rate was ten percent.
In many places, the vaccination centers were either put on standby or closed.
The governments also feared criticism from the auditors, especially the high rental costs they wanted to save.
In Baden-Württemberg, for example, the vaccination centers were all closed at the end of September, and the health authorities had parts of the equipment stored. While the opposition Greens in Lower Saxony are calling for vaccination centers to be reopened, Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Health Manfred Lucha (Greens) thinks little of it. “We would like to appeal once again to the commitment of the medical profession to fulfill their care mandate. You have a great responsibility here and, by the way, urged from the beginning of the vaccination campaign to be allowed to carry out the vaccinations in the practices ”, said the minister of the FAZ. The ministry is evaluating the progress made with booster vaccinations.
To support the resident doctors, the green-black state government uses 80 mobile vaccination teams, they are stationed at twelve hospitals and each consist of five people.
These vaccination teams are supposed to ensure a quick third vaccination in old people's homes, senior residences, facilities for the disabled as well as with doctors and nursing staff.
There have already been 30 mobile vaccination teams - after the vaccination centers were closed, 50 additional mobile vaccination teams were put together.
Around 24,000 euros are earmarked for this from October to the end of December, which is cheaper than maintaining vaccination centers.
Many are afraid to enter a vaccination center
The reluctance to set up vaccination centers again is also based on the experiences with the people unwilling to vaccinate: While long queues often form in front of vaccination buses, many vaccination centers have been yawning empty recently, it is said.
Many are afraid to enter a vaccination center;
"Low-threshold pop-up vaccinations" are more successful, according to the State Ministry of Health.
How many sick or elderly people in the homes have already received a booster vaccination is not recorded separately;
a total of 277,893 people in Baden-Württemberg received the third-party vaccination.