Angela Merkel responds to vaccine roll-out critics; assures full house at centres by April

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday hit out against the slow COVID-19 vaccine rollout critic, saying that the vaccination centres set up in the country last year will be exhausted to their maximum capacity by April 2021. Putting the ‘disappointment’ for the sluggish vaccine campaign at rest, Merkel insisted that Germany has administered vaccine shots in close to 3.8 million, and at the current speed, Germany’s vast inoculation centres were going to fill up soon. This comes as EU approved deliveries of the three more vaccines, the shipment for which is expected to ramp up in weeks ahead.

In an interview with public broadcaster ZDF, Germany’s chancellor appreciated the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine, just a year into the pandemic. “That’s a huge achievement that nobody could have expected,” Merkel said in a live-streamed address, cited by Associated Press. “We didn’t point out clearly enough that there wouldn’t be enough vaccines for everybody at the start,” further, she added. 

[Seniors stand in waiting area, to get the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccination against COVID-19. Credit: AP]

[Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in front of the Bundestag, Berlin. Credit: AP]

Vaccine centres to witness 'influx'

Merkel insisted, that following the inoculation of vulnerable and high priority groups’, Germany’s vaccination centres are expected to witness an influx of population ready for the jab. “Centers will be at full capacity at the end of March, April,” said, the German chancellor. “We will struggle to administer all [the vaccines] then, but in the first weeks there's a shortage and some people may have expected differently.” Citing EU’s late approval of the world’s first-ever jab manufactured by German company BioNTech, Merkel clarified, that Germany’s late procurement of the vials “wasn't a question of money.” In her interview, Merkel regretted her late decisions about mandating facemasks and imposing the country’s second lockdown, both of which she said was ‘necessary’. “In hindsight, we were of course too hesitant in the fall,” Merkel said. “I didn't have a good feeling at the time, but I supported the decision (to delay the lockdown).”

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People 'jumping the queue'

Germany, with its vaccination campaign in full swing, has been witnessing what it describes as ‘Impfdraengler’, which roughly translates to jostling past. Many in the vaccination queues outside the inoculation centres were accused of jumping the line and getting doses ‘out of turn’. State press cited hospitals chiefs, local politicians and even the Catholic bishop of Augsburg getting inoculated earlier than expected, surpassing the vulnerable groups. Health minister, Jens Spahn told reporters that the government was now considering “sanctioning this area.” Overall, Germany witnessed a dip in the trajectory of the pandemic with cases going from 15 per 100,000 last week to fewer than 10 per100,000 on February 11. 

[German Health Minister Jens Spahn addresses a news conference on the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 12, 2021. Tobias Schwarz/Pool via AP]

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Angela Merkel says German vaccine centres 'will be full' by April