The Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Nordrhein (KVNO) is re-enabling its booking portal at www.116117.de and by calling 0800/11611701 from 8 a.m. on Wednesday for initial vaccinations. From Thursday, one can then be immunized in the Bonn vaccination center. "However, since it is initially only about 40,000 doses of Biontech in total for all of North Rhine, it is very likely that the new appointments will quickly find buyers," says KVNO spokesman Christopher Schneider. The vaccination dates are basically bookable for the period from June 24 to July 4. However, the exact distribution may vary depending on the vaccination center, as some centers in NRW are not open on Sundays, for example.

The city of Bonn expects to give first and second vaccinations to around 1,500 people from Thursday, gradually moving towards 1,800 by the weekend, which is the full capacity. "This depends on the booking behavior of the election workers and those eligible for vaccination, who book through the KV," says deputy city spokesman Marc Hoffmann. The first and second vaccinations will run in parallel, as was the case in the months before. "For this, in particular, the administrative and vaccination staff of the KV is increased again." Recently, this number had been reduced because only second vaccinations were being administered.

Vaccination can be give to over 60-year-olds, people with pre-existing conditions and employees in hospitals and inpatient and semi-inpatient facilities of integration assistance and workshops for people with disabilities. What is new is that the vaccination campaign for election workers for the Bundestag elections in September is now starting. "For this purpose, the city of Bonn contacted the election workers by e-mail on Monday," explains Hoffmann. It is expected that in a few days more groups will be contacted to begin the vaccinations.

Physicians' offices will not be affected by the state's deliveries to community vaccination centers. The centers are supplied with vaccines by the state, and the practices are supplied directly by the federal government through wholesale pharmacy centers. But there's more vaccine here, too: until June 27, each doctor can order 30 doses per week from Biontech and 20 doses from Astrazeneca. Starting June 28, there will be twice as many, according to KVNO. Depending on the total number of second vaccinations, it is possible that physicians may receive less vaccine than they ordered for first vaccinations, he said. Once again, no delivery of the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is planned, he said.

Original text: Nicolas Ottersbach. Translation: Mareike Graepel