The new Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach has underlined the importance of booster vaccinations in the fight against the new Corona variant Omikron. “The vaccination is only complete if you have been vaccinated three times,” said the SPD politician on Wednesday in the ZDF’s “heute journal”.
That is the new reality in order to be somewhat protected from Omikron. It is very likely that two vaccinations will already alleviate the disease, “and three vaccinations will probably protect you very well against serious illness”.
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You have to make sure that Omikron reaches Germany as late as possible. According to Lauterbach, if the Omikron variant were to reach all of Germany, this could have an impact on who is considered fully vaccinated.
“If we actually had the Omikron wave here in Germany, then 2G would be achieved when you have the third vaccination,” says Lauterbach. With two vaccinations you cannot assume that you are completely protected. 2G means that recovered and fully vaccinated people have access to facilities. “But we will cross this bridge when we have reached it,” said Lauterbach.
The first thing to do is to prevent infection with the Omikron variant in Germany. The booster vaccinations are an optimal preparation for this. That is the first pillar in health protection “that we have in hand”. The second pillar includes a general compulsory vaccination.
Which contracts are there, which ones can still be concluded?
In this context, Lauterbach announced that he would like to get an overview of the quantities of corona vaccines available in Germany this week. “We have the basis for 30 million vaccinations by the end of the year”, he told the “Spiegel” “We are now doing an in-house inventory with all departments on Friday to see how many of these 30 million can really be vaccinated . “
To this end, it will be checked which vaccination doses are stored where, which contracts for the purchase of further cans have already been concluded, what deliveries for January look like and which bilateral contracts are still possible, according to Lauterbach. Bundeswehr General Carsten Breuer will accompany him during the inventory in the Ministry of Health.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) recently appointed Breuer to head the Corona crisis team. The major general in this post should deal primarily with the procurement and distribution of vaccines.
The traffic light coalition wants to massively boost the vaccination campaign in the next few weeks. The Infection Protection Act, which is currently being discussed in the Bundestag, provides for a compulsory vaccination for certain facilities. In the future, in addition to doctors, pharmacists will also vaccinate. (dpa)
