According to the Blood Donation Service West of the German Red Cross (DRK), the fourth wave of the Corona pandemic has seen a 20 percent drop in donations. The blood donor service is therefore calling on people to donate before Christmas so that stocks can be replenished. This is the only way to secure the supply situation over the holidays and the turn of the year.

According to the DRK, there have been constant ups and downs in the willingness to donate in recent months. From the beginning of 2021 until spring, the situation was outstanding. When the pandemic restrictions were lifted, the willingness to donate collapsed. The flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate made matters worse. "Since October, the blood donor service has not been able to build up necessary reserves; on the contrary, clinic orders have to be cut every day," reports Stephan David Küpper of the DRK Blood Donor Service West.

In addition to the German Red Cross Blood Donor Service, citizens can also donate blood at university clinics, many hospitals or at municipal and private blood donation centres.

Paediatricians in Bonn are prepared, but so far there is a lack of vaccine. Several Bonn doctors who wanted to start the Corona vaccination of five- to eleven-year-olds on Monday had to postpone the start of the campaign for the time being. "Unfortunately, the vaccine will not be available until tomorrow evening and we had to schedule the first vaccinations for Wednesday," said a private health centre, whose partner pharmacy received the vaccine on Monday afternoon after all. As expected, the vaccine is not available in unlimited quantities, but can only be called up by doctors in tranches and at fixed intervals. The city of Bonn is opening its new vaccination centre in the Bad Godesberg Stadthalle this week. Starting Friday, there will be four vaccination lanes, one of which is reserved for children.

Several people demonstrated on Monday in front of the gates of BioNTech's headquarters in Mainz for the release of the patents on Corona vaccines and drugs. The rally went off without a hitch and had no impact on traffic, said a police spokesperson in Mainz. The 18 activists from the group Attac demanded that corporations put aside their profit interests and act for the good of humanity. The patent protection on products around Covid-19 must therefore be temporarily suspended. BioNTech, like other manufacturers, supplies its vaccine doses to poor countries at cost price.

After the Christmas holidays, there will be PCR lollipop tests twice a week in all day-care centres in Bornheim. This was decided by the Youth Welfare Committee at its most recent meeting. (Original text: dpa/ga / Translation: Mareike Graepel)