Date | 26 December 2020 – present |
---|---|
Location | Germany |
Cause | COVID-19 pandemic in Germany |
Target | Full immunisation of people in Germany against COVID-19 |
Participants | 55,869,314 people with one dose 52,503,166 people fully vaccinated (19 September 2021) |
Website | Official Website |
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Germany began on 26 December 2020. [2]
As of 16 December 2021 [update] , 60,679,186 people have received at least one dose (73% of total population), while 58,174,724 people have been fully vaccinated (70% of total population). [3] And as of 8 April 2023, 63.6 million people (76.4% of the total population) received the Grundimmunisierung (two doses or one dose and undergone infection) while 52.1 million people (62.6%) had received at least one additional booster dose. [4]
In January 2023, the health ministry stated that the expenditure on vaccines to date was 13.1 billion euros. [5]
There are several COVID-19 vaccines at various stages of development around the world. The ones listed as "pending" in the column "approval" in the table below were under review by the European Medicines Agency as of 15 May 2021, [6] with unclear status as of July 2023.
Vaccine | Approval | Deployment |
---|---|---|
Pfizer–BioNTech | 21 December 2020 | 26 December 2020 |
Moderna | 6 January 2021 | 12 January 2021 |
Oxford–AstraZeneca | 29 January 2021 | 7 February 2021 |
Janssen | 11 March 2021 | 5 May 2021 |
Novavax | 20 December 2021 | 21 March 2022 [7] |
VLA2001 | 24 June 2022 | 9 September 2022 [8] |
VidPrevtyn Beta | 10 November 2022 | 12 December 2022 [9] |
Bimervax (COVID-19 Vaccine HIPRA) | 30 March 2023 [10] | Pending |
CoronaVac | Pending | No but recognition on 31 March 2022 [11] |
Sputnik V | Pending (but suspended since March 2022) [12] | No but recognition on 31 March 2022 [11] |
CureVac | Request withdrawn | No |
The German Immunization Committee (STIKO) initially recommended jabs from AstraZeneca [13] and Janssen only for patients ages 60 and above after reports of blood clot post-vaccination, but this was made available to everyone by the federal government on 6 May 2021 [14] and 10 May 2021, [15] respectively. On November 10 of the same year, STIKO recommended jabs from Moderna's vaccine mRNA-1273 only to persons 30 years of age and older due to the increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis for young people, and the vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer was the only recommended vaccine for young people. [16]
| ||||||
As of 19 July 2021 |
At the beginning of the vaccination campaign, the vaccine was planned to be distributed in four priority groups. [17]
The first priority group received their first vaccination on 26 December 2020. Everyone ages 80 and above, residents & caretakers of senior residents and high risk medical personnel are included in this group.[ citation needed ]
This group consists of everyone ages 70 to 79, people with high risk preexisting conditions or Down's Syndrome or psychologically impaired and their caretakers, caretakers of pregnant women, and other medical personnel not included in group 1.
Group 3 consists of everyone ages 60 to 69, people with moderate preexisting conditions and their caretakers, employees of the government, shops, and vital infrastructure, and teachers.
Everyone under the age of 60, but at least 16 years old, who are not included in the above vaccination group will be the last to get inoculation once most members of the top three priority groups receive their first dose. At a press conference on 26 April 2021, chancellor Angela Merkel promised to remove the prioritization by June, [18] with Health Minister Jens Spahn later announcing its end on June 7, 2021. [19] However, the states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, and Berlin decided to enable this group to also get vaccinated through a doctor's office starting on 17 May 2021. [20] [21] [22]
On 27 May 2021, chancellor Angela Merkel announced the extension of this priority to include children ages 12 to 15, on the condition that at least one existing vaccine is approved for use in this age range by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). [23]
On 8 August 2021, it was reported that in response to a decreasing demand for vaccinations, in particular the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the Health Ministry would, starting from 16 August, distribute vaccines to the 16 states on the basis of reported demand, instead of the maximum feasible amounts. For the same reason, states projected in a survey by Die Welt that they would return over 2 million vaccine doses to the federal government. Development minister Gerd Müller told the newspaper that the amount of 30 million vaccine doses already promised should be increased in view of the situation, and that as the next step, the capacities for domestic production in poorer countries should be improved. [24]
From 13 to 19 September, mobile vaccination centers were set up on public transport, mosques, and football fields as part of a campaign to increase the vaccination rate in the population. [25]
Since October 2021, there was increased support for the introduction of mandates for vaccination against Covid-19 and the newly formed Scholz cabinet endorsed the initiatives with some reservations on the part of the coalition partner FDP. The vaccine mandate for employees in clinics and nursing homes (einrichtungsbezogene Impfpflicht) passed the Bundestag on 10 December 2021 and became law. [26]
But none of the legislative proposals for a general vaccine mandate received a majority in the vote in the Bundestag on 7 April 2022, [27] and the German government decided not to pursue initiatives for a general mandate any further. [28]
Finally, the vaccine mandate for employees in clinics and nursing homes (einrichtungsbezogene Impfpflicht) ceased with the end of 2022. [29]
In August 2021, authorities in north Germany found that a nurse injected saline instead of vaccine, and had to ask more than 8,000 people to get repeat Covid vaccinations. [30]
Vaccination figures were obtained from the RKI, updated every business day and correspond to progress on the previous day. [31] Starting from April, inoculations can also be administered at a doctor's office alongside the existing vaccination center and mobile teams [32] and from 7 June at a company's physician office. A first dose is described as a person who received at least one COVID-19 vaccine doses, while a full dose stands for a person who completed the vaccination process with the prescribed doses.
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
Federal state | Vaccinated population | Percentage of population vaccinated | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
first dose | full dose | booster dose | first dose | full dose | booster dose | |
Baden-Württemberg | 7,573,673 | 7,374,131 | 924,137 | 68.2% | 66.4% | 8.3% |
Bavaria | 9,002,287 | 8,735,431 | 1,335,733 | 68.5% | 66.5% | 10.2% |
Berlin | 2,620,248 | 2,526.217 | 461,183 | 71.5% | 68.9% | 12.6% |
Brandenburg | 1,626,073 | 1,567,530 | 206,972 | 64.2% | 61.9% | 8.2% |
Bremen | 4,456,366 | 4,241,163 | 531,825 | 70.8% | 67.4% | 8.5% |
Hamburg | 1,410,015 | 1,371,397 | 164,664 | 76.1% | 74.0% | 8.9% |
Hesse | 4,456,366 | 4,241,163 | 531,825 | 70.8% | 67.4% | 8.5% |
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 1,110,893 | 1,074,521 | 146,095 | 69.0% | 66.7% | 9.1% |
Lower Saxony | 5,856,585 | 5,613,878 | 748,550 | 73.2% | 70.1% | 9.4% |
North Rhine-Westphalia | 13,447,374 | 12,838,448 | 1,850,983 | 75.0% | 71.6% | 10.3% |
Rhineland-Palatinate | 2,957,266 | 2.786,767 | 374,723 | 72.2% | 68.0% | 9.1% |
Saarland | 760,872 | 735,825 | 109,994 | 77.3% | 74.8% | 11.2% |
Saxony | 2,445,570 | 2,351,886 | 303,958 | 60.3% | 58.0% | 7.5% |
Saxony-Anhalt | 1,450,062 | 1,412,577 | 194,687 | 66.5% | 64.8% | 8.9% |
Schleswig-Holstein | 2,187,755 | 2,113,758 | 306,800 | 75.2% | 72.6% | 10.5% |
Thuringia | 1,356,545 | 1,320,893 | 230,964 | 64.0% | 62.3% | 10.9% |
Bundeswehr / German Federal Police | 194,512 | 186,914 | 10,143 | – | – | – |
Germany | 59,018,263 | 56,795,142 | 7,981,435 | 71.0 % | 68.3 % | 9.6 % |
Total injected doses | 120,376,028 | |||||
As of 26 November 2021 per data from Robert Koch Institut. |
The term post-vac (or post-vac syndrome, post-vaccine syndrome, post-vax of long-vax [33] ) is used in Germany, Switzerland [34] and Austria [35] in connection with long-standing symptoms somewhat similar to long covid symptoms and does not indicate a defined disease or designation. No causal relationship has been found between the corona vaccination against COVID-19 and symptoms attributed to post-vac, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, orthostatic hypotension and Long covid-like symptoms, however post-vac has been little studied. [36] It was suggested that the term post-vac syndrome should not be used as it is imprecise; instead, the term post-COVID-19 vaccination syndrome, PCVS, colloquially post-COVIDvac-syndrome, should be used and a distinction made between acute COVID-19 vaccination syndrome (ACVS) and post-acute COVID-19 vaccination syndrome (PACVS) – in analogy to acute COVID-19 and post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS, long COVID). [37]
In Germany, the University Hospital of Giessen and Marburg (Universitätsklinikum Giessen und Marburg - UKGM) has established a treatment and research center for post-vac syndrome. [38] [39] [40]
The German Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) publishes a safety reports on reports of suspected corona vaccine adverse reactions and complications related to the approved COVID-19 vaccines, and the PEI reviews these reports. In the 7 September 2022 safety notice, which covers a time period from 27 December 2020 to 30 June 2022, the PEI refers for the first time to the concept of post-vac syndrome and examines reports of long-standing complaints after vaccination. [41] It was found that chronic fatigue, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and pulmonary Covid-like complaints after vaccination were no more common than would be expected based on normal incidence.
The follow-up statement from May 2023 on "post-vac" (data till mid-May 2023) [42] and the comprehensive safety report (data till end of March 2023) from June 2023 from the Paul Ehrlich Institut (PEI) confirmed that more than half of the reported cases worldwide (1452 out of 2657 as of 31 March 2023) of "Post-Vac" have been reported from Germany. [43] [44] [45]
The German Federal Minister for Health, Karl Lauterbach, mentioned in a ZDF TV-interview on 12 March 2023 the occurrence of corona-vaccination damages and the post-vac syndrome. Lauterbach indicated that there was yet no drug available, nor a treatment method. He promised financial help for the victims. [46]
Since the end of March 2023 the Bavarian ministry of health established a telephone hotline for people suspecting a "Post-Vac-Syndrom". [47]
Sinovac Biotech Ltd. is a Chinese biopharmaceutical company based in Haidian District, Beijing that focuses on the research, development, manufacture, and commercialization of vaccines that protect against human infectious diseases. The company was listed on the Nasdaq but the exchange halted Sinovac's trading in February 2019 due to a proxy fight. The company has faced bribery probes in China. Its COVID-19 vaccine was also the target of a covert disinformation campaign by the US government.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in 38,437,756 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 174,979 deaths.
Vaccine diplomacy, a form of medical diplomacy, is the use of vaccines to improve a country's diplomatic relationship and influence of other countries. Meanwhile, vaccine diplomacy also "means a set of diplomatic measures taken to ensure access to the best practices in the development of potential vaccines, to enhance bilateral and/or multilateral cooperation between countries in conducting joint R&D, and, in the case of the announcement of production, to ensure the signing of a contract for the purchase of the vaccine at the shortest term." Although primary discussed in the context of the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, it also played a part in the distribution of the smallpox vaccine.
CoronaVac, also known as the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, was a whole inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech. It was phase III clinically trialled in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Turkey and relies on traditional technology similar to other inactivated-virus COVID-19 vaccines, such as the Sinopharm BIBP vaccine, another Chinese vaccine, and Covaxin, an Indian vaccine. CoronaVac does not need to be frozen, and both the final product and the raw material for formulating CoronaVac can be transported refrigerated at 2–8 °C (36–46 °F), the temperatures at which flu vaccines are kept.
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The 2022–2023 mpox outbreak in Germany is part of an ongoing global outbreak of human mpox caused by the West African clade of the monkeypox virus. At the beginning of September 2022, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom are the countries with most cumulative cases in Europe.
Thomas Michael Christian Mertens is a German virologist who currently heads the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO), which as part of the Robert Koch Institute advises the German government regarding vaccines.
When comparing the absolute numbers of reports of suspected cases presented, it seems notable that at the time of the evaluation, more than 50% of all suspected cases registered worldwide (n=2,817) with these symptoms were reported from Germany (n= 1,547).