Germany to open covid vaccination centers across the country by next month

Germany has started initial works for setting up vaccination centers across the country for Covid -19.

According to a report by Welt am Sonntag, the vaccination centers will be operative from next month. Each administrative district in 16 federal states will have one to two centers-totaling hundreds of centers, the report said.Mobile vaccination teams will be employed in each centre, the report added.

Large exhibition halls ,some of which are out of use since covid-19 induced lockdown may be transformed as vaccination centres.

The capital, Berlin, alone is reportedly aiming to set up six such centers, Welt am Sonntag said.

However according to a report by AP,German Chancellor Angela Merkel says nursing home workers and the people they are caring for will be among the first to get access to coronavirus vaccines.

Merkel said Saturday in her weekly video address that staff and residents of nursing homes will “receive priority” as soon as a vaccine is available.

Almost 1 million people in Germany live in nursing and care homes. The country is seeking to buy 100 million doses of a vaccine being developed by German pharmaceutical company BioNTech and U.S. partner Pfizer.

Germany’s disease control agency reported a further 22,461 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to Saturday, as well as 178 additional deaths. Since the start of the pandemic, Germany has recorded 773,556 confirmed cases and 12,378 deaths, the report said.

Earlier, the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has proved 90% effective in their third trial and the EU has already signed a deal with BioNTech and Pfizer to procure 300 million doses.