BERLIN (AP) – Anxious to distribute hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccines that have been accumulating, Germany began to intensify the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine after authorities said it could be safely administered to people aged 65 or more.
Doses have accumulated dust in storage in recent weeks because of German restrictions on who could receive the vaccine and doubts among some who were eligible. Germany has received 2.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine so far, but has administered only 721,000, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
Last week, Germany’s independent vaccine committee said new data showed that the AstraZeneca vaccine was also effective in older people, which led to a rapid change of rules by the government, which has been criticized for its slow implementation of vaccination compared to Britain and the United States.
The authorities in Berlin opened on Monday a sixth major vaccination center at the disabled Tempelhof airport in the heart of the capital, which will administer only the AstraZeneca vaccine. Starting with 200 consultations, operators expect to rapidly increase to up to 3,300 doses per day starting on March 23.
Some general practitioners in Berlin will also start vaccinating people with chronic conditions this week, according to the city’s chief health officer, Dilek Kalayci.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told public broadcaster ZDF that he expects Germany to be able to administer up to 10 million doses a week by the end of the month. That would be double the roughly 5 million injections that Germany has administered since the vaccination began in late December.
Some 2.5 million people in Germany – about 3% of the population – have so far received the two vaccines required for the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.
The urge to get vaccinated faster comes as Germany takes more steps out of the blockade this week, with more students returning to school and some businesses, museums and zoos reopening, albeit only for those who have booked in advance.
Among the first to receive the vaccine at the new Tempelhof site were many health professionals, teachers and police.
Silvia Firat, who works with the elderly, said she had initial doubts about the AstraZeneca vaccine after hearing that some had strong reactions to it. But when Firat received an invitation, she decided to go ahead, partly to set an example.
“I can only recommend that you do that,” said the 40-year-old man. “Each injection we receive has some side effects, some more, some less.”
Germany has seen more than 72,000 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began. His disease control agency reported 5,011 new cases confirmed overnight and 34 more deaths.
Thomas Mertens, who heads Germany’s independent vaccine advisory panel, STIKO, insisted that any suggestions that the age limit for the AstraZeneca vaccine had been revised due to political pressure were “incorrect, absolutely incorrect”.
Mertens told the Associated Press that his panel never intended to raise doubts about the vaccine, but considered the data that AstraZeneca originally presented to people over 65 as “insufficient”.
Additional analyzes provided by the company and released by health officials in England and Scotland prompted STIKO to raise the age limit for the vaccine last week, he said, noting that other countries in Europe have taken a similar approach.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been authorized for use by US regulators.
Germany’s family minister said she was optimistic that the country’s vaccination rate will rise dramatically soon.
“We will have a completely different discussion in a few weeks,” Minister Franziska Giffey told the AP. “It is not a discussion about the lack of vaccines, but instead, the discussion will be about how we can ensure that all available vaccines are actually used.”
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