Young people in Germany aged 12 and over will be able to get themselves vaccinated against COVID-19 from June 7 - provided the European Medicines Agency gives its approval - federal and state leaders decided at a summit on Thursday. 

Vaccination offer for adolescents in Germany from June 7

The decision was reached during consultations between Angela Merkel and the leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states. They decided that, as soon as the vaccine priority list is lifted - which is scheduled to happen on June 7 - children and adolescents should also be able to apply for vaccination appointments at their regular doctor or at a vaccination centre. 

The prerequisite for this is that the BioNTech / Pfizer jab is approved for use in this age group by the European Medicines Agency. A decision on this is expected on Friday. The vaccine is already approved for people aged 16 and over in the EU, while the US earlier this month authorised the vaccine for younger people. 

No compulsory coronavirus vaccines

The plan is for everybody aged 12 to 15 to be offered a jab by the end of August, to ensure that schools can start to return to some form of normality after the school holidays. However, ministers agreed on Thursday that the resumption of school operations would not depend on how many students get vaccinated. 

“The main message to parents is: there will be no compulsory vaccinations,” Merkel emphasised, adding that schools would not require pupils to be vaccinated, and that it “would be totally wrong to think you can only go on holiday with a vaccinated child.”