"The organisation is great. I like the service of the doctors and my son was seen quickly," says Upreti. The vaccination, is mostly accepted positively by the girls and boys, observes Wierschem. "Ninety per cent of the children are really brave, only a few cry or are afraid of the injection." The paediatrician then distracts the latter with plaster motifs and questions about Christmas presents.

Siddharth is one of many children who will still be vaccinated on Tuesday - because it is the last opportunity this year. Vaccinations will not continue until next Monday. "Most of the children are quickly persuaded and ask interested questions about the vaccination and what they are allowed to do afterwards," Wierschem reports.

Michael Gerlich and his daughter Anna are leaving the town hall through a side entrance. She was given a horse as a plaster, the seven-year-old says, and is happy about her first vaccination: "It didn't hurt and was good," she says. Her father is very satisfied with the procedure. "The waiting time was short and everything worked well," says Gerlich.

Katinka Kaiser is still sitting in the rest area with her eleven-year-old son Noah. The pupil looks at the vaccination centre a little tired. "The registration for a vaccination appointment was very uncomplicated and quick. We searched for a vaccination centre on the internet and found something quickly," Kaiser says. Noah proudly presents his patch: a dog this time.

"I only felt the prick a little bit and am glad to be vaccinated now." Because his classmates have already been through it all, the pupil says. Nicole Jansen also finds the organisation good: "Because you got an appointment quickly." For her son Simon's paediatrician, on the other hand, all the appointments were fully booked. Some parents use the visit to the vaccination centre to get booster shots.

On Tuesday, between 250 and 300 children's vaccinations will be carried out, estimated Dr Hubert Radinger, medical director for children's vaccinations at the City of Bonn. On Monday, 372 children between the ages of five and eleven had received their first vaccination, he said. "The rush was bigger than we had expected, and we were quite busy at times," the specialist for paediatrics and adolescent medicine draws a preliminary conclusion.

The first day in particular was very busy. "In the meantime, things have settled down and the many vaccinations are evenly distributed throughout the day." It is a steady flow that is well organised, he said. "The parents and children have short to no waiting times and are very satisfied in this respect," observes Radinger. In any case, he says, a large proportion of the children are very cooperative. "They are happy to be vaccinated."

From 4 p.m.onwards, children without an appointment are also vaccinated.According to city spokeswoman Barbara Löcherbach, 1,618 children between the ages of five and eleven have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus for the first time in the federal city between 17 and 27 December - the second vaccinations are still to follow.

In connection with the children's vaccinations, the chairman of the Bonn paediatricians and adolescent doctors, Axel Gerschlauer, praises the public health department. The cooperation is "in contrast to earlier years really good". The communication is in the interest of the patients. The head of the public health department, Susanne Engels, had written to him as chairman and asked whether practices had a short-term need for children's vaccines. "The Public Health Service gave us vaccines so that three practices could additionally vaccinate chronically ill children from five to eleven years of age, for whom there would otherwise have been no doses in the practices," Gerschlauer told the GA.

Löcherbach confirmed the process and cited the number of 90 children who were able to receive a vaccination as a result. Shortly before Christmas, the city administration had expanded the vaccination capacity for children, as there was a real rush for online appointments.

Four vaccination lines are now available, and it became apparent after the first child vaccination day that parents needed much less advice than previously thought. The time saved also made it possible to expand the range of services. For adults, a separate fifth vaccination line was introduced in the Bad Godesberger Stadthalle, as there is also a great need for this.

Currently, visitors can choose between vaccines from Moderna and BioNTech. This was made possible because the city received a special quota of BioNTech vaccine doses. It is not known how many doses are involved. Other cities had also received such special quotas in the past few days.

As of last Tuesday, the city had recorded 709,099 vaccinations since the start of the campaign - this does not include the number of child vaccinations. 277,210 were first vaccinations, 274,497 second vaccinations, and so far 157,392 people have had the booster vaccination in Bonn. The same total number is also given by the vaccination monitoring of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of North Rhine.

Original text: Niklas Schröder and Maximilian Mühlens

Translation: Mareike Graepel