BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is exploring industry showrooms and airport terminals for use as mass vaccination centres as it develops plans to vaccinate the country as soon as the first coronavirus vaccine gets European approval, public fitness officials told Reuters.
Berlin expects the first COVID-19 vaccines to be available in early 2021 and has given the country’s 16 states a November 10 deadline to detail the addresses of 60 services that can serve as delivery centers for manufacturers.
As a component of the national immunization strategy, approved over its past week, Germany has called on states to identify central vaccination centres that will be supplemented through cell groups to move into nursing homes.
The centralized one highlights the possible logistical demand situations faced by governments, adding limited supplies, multi-box roads and complex garage needs.
Some of the most complex vaccines in human testing are so-called mRNA vaccines developed through Moderna and BioNTech that will need to be stored at temperatures as low as 80 degrees Celsius (-112 Fahrenheit).
In smaller state-cities, such as Hamburg and Bremen, the government is for easily accessible central locations, such as exhibition halls, where vaccines can be stored.
“We are in favor of larger, central and more spacious sites. It may well be the airport or the lounge,” said a spokesman for Hamburg’s Ministry of Health, adding that no final resolution had been taken.
Larger and more rural states, such as Baden-Wuerttemberg and Schleswig-Holstein, plan to distribute vaccines of centralized delivery in districts and cities, fitness officials said.
Germany has asked the Robert Koch Institute’s vaccine committee to identify vulnerable population teams that deserve to be vaccinated in the first place, frontline staff deserve to be a priority.
Second, although more vaccines will be available in single-dose vials, Germany hopes to be able to give injections to the entire population in medical offices.
An electronic record will record who has been vaccinated, while an app is being developed to allow others to record potential side effects.
The scale of Germany’s plans contrasts with that of Italy, where the government intends to use existing infrastructure, adding 50,000 general doctors, 14,000 paediatricians and vaccination centres for local public fitness offices.
“With these channels, we usually deliver about 30 million vaccines a year to young people and adults, so this is a good enough infrastructure for the long-term COVID vaccine,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Health.
France has also planned to buy and distribute vaccines across the country, but there are still no espresso main points available, a source close to the ministry of fitness said.
(Additional report via Emilio Paradi in Milan and Matthias Blamont in Paris, edited through Ed Osmond)
Subscribe
Sign up for our news explosion.