The chairman of the Standing Committee on Vaccination at the Robert Koch Institute (STIKO) has said that the pace of Germany’s rollout of vaccines against coronavirus will pick up from April, as the supply of available doses increases.

Getting Germany’s vaccine programme back on track

The head of Germany’s vaccine agency, STIKO, has told reporters that, as the supply of available vaccine doses increases, the country’s vaccine programme will begin to run more smoothly. “The core problem so far has unquestionably been the lack of vaccinations,” said Thomas Mertens. “I think that there will be such an increase in available doses in the second and third quarters that the vaccine centres will no longer be able to use them all.”

Mertens added that he could understand why people were so frustrated at the slow pace of Germany’s vaccine programme but believes that this should pick up significantly in the next month. The speed of the rollout should also be boosted by the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine has now been cleared for use on over-65s in Germany.

Vaccine shortages

Germany's federal states have had to deal with vaccine shortages since the rollout commenced. Just this Saturday, Baden-Württemberg confirmed that it had stopped delivering vaccines to its hospitals so that the supply to vaccine centres could be maintained. “The continuing shortage of vaccine supplies means that the vaccine doses which have been given to our state will be delivered in the coming weeks to the vaccination centres,” said a statement from the department of health.

“High risk” hospital staff - those who have been in direct contact with patients suffering from coronavirus - have been top of the priority list for vaccines since the programme began. However, hospital staff in Baden-Württemberg will now have to register for an appointment at vaccine centres instead, with the state insisting that all “high risk” staff have been vaccinated and priorities have to be shifted elsewhere.

“We are not happy about this, nor can we really understand it,” said Hans-Georg Kräusslich, head virologist at Heidelberg University Hospital. “We wanted to vaccinate the students who are doing their clinical semester, as well as other staff. Now everyone has to register at the vaccination centres, where the workload is already high.”