As promised, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn is making arrangements to push primary school teachers and staff in childcare centres further up Germany’s vaccine priority list. The change should come into force on Wednesday. 

Primary school teachers & Early years educators to get vaccine sooner

To protect them against COVID-19 now that education facilities are reopening in the majority of German states, teachers at primary schools and special schools, as well as staff at daycare centres, should be able to get vaccinated earlier than previously planned. This was announced by the chairperson of the conference of state health ministers, Klaus Holetscheck, on Monday. 

Accordingly, these population groups will be pushed up the vaccine priority list - from the third to second priority group. This higher prioritisation should enable a quick and safe implementation of the federal states’ reopening strategies for daycare centres and primary schools - where many, often close, contacts cannot be easily avoided, while necessary hygiene rules like social distancing and mask wearing are difficult to enforce. 

Holetscheck said, “The federal states have voted in favour of this new regulation without any dissenting votes… We have to protect professional groups with a particularly high risk of infection.” 

Change should come into effect on Wednesday

Spahn has submitted an amendment to the vaccine ordinance, which is expected to come into force on Wednesday. 

The health minister and the leaders of several federal states had previously spoken out in favour of moving teachers and educators higher up the vaccine priority list. Angela Merkel and the federal states agreed at the coronavirus summit on February 10 that they would examine whether this was possible.