Vaccination campaigns in Sankt Augustin City councils, doctors and volunteers organise special

Sankt Augustin · The city of Sankt Augustin makes its own vaccination offers to its citizens. Mayor Max Leitterstorf has been able to recruit doctors and many volunteers. He does this out of conviction.

 Mayor Max Leitterstorf and his team organise vaccination campaigns. 801 people received the injection in the upper arm in Mülldorf.

Mayor Max Leitterstorf and his team organise vaccination campaigns. 801 people received the injection in the upper arm in Mülldorf.

Foto: Stadt Sankt Augustin

Signal yellow jacket, steaming coffee cup. Mayor Max Leitterstorf is standing at the Catholic primary school in Mülldorf on Saturday morning, talking to an employee of the municipal public order office. Under the blue roof of a pavilion, the colleague has laid out lists on a high table. It is the vaccination campaign of the city of Sankt Augustin. At the end of the day, 801 citizens will have been vaccinated, most of them with the third, booster vaccination.

Corona vaccinations are not one of the compulsory tasks of the city of Sankt Augustin. But the mayor of Augustin has apparently made it his duty of conscience to do something for the vaccination progress beyond the mobile vaccination offers of the Rhein-Sieg district and the practising doctors. Last week, there were already two appointments in Hangelar. The campaign was called "Late Night Booster" in the house of the volunteer fire brigade. Doctors gave the public a prick in the upper arm until midnight - anyone could drop by without an appointment. About 600 took up the offer.

Appointments can be booked by mail

In Mülldorf it was different. The injection was only available with an appointment. Those who sent an e-mail to Impfen@sankt-augustin.de received an immediate reply and an appointment. The team around Leitterstorf already has two more days on offer: on December 11 and 18. With the confirmation of the appointment, those who want to be vaccinated will also be told where they can get their injection.

Why is Leitterstorf so committed to this? "Because vaccination is the most important tool to get out of the pandemic," says the mayor in an interview with the GA on Monday. "For me it is a matter of course. In times of pandemic, it is also a question of how closely a society stands together. Moreover, the situation is more serious than ever. I therefore appeal to citizens to get vaccinated, but also to get tested regularly."

The city of Sankt Augustin already provided services in the first vaccination wave in addition to the vaccination centre of the Rhein-Sieg district. "By 26 June, every adult in Sankt Augustin had a vaccination offer," Leitterstorf says, not without pride. There were vaccination offers at schools, five vaccination booths were set up in the canteen of the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, and, what the mayor found particularly important, they also went to those areas where the socio-economic environment was somewhat more problematic. Four high-rise buildings were visited door to door to promote immunisation.

Conference with doctors

Already at the beginning of April, Leitterstorf invited all practices of registered doctors to a video conference and asked them how the city could support them. "Many practices got very involved, we worked particularly closely with a group practice in Hangelar, a practice in Mülldorf, and the radiology department in Sankt Augustin," says Leitterstorf.

And the division of labour is clearly regulated: The doctors take care of ordering the vaccine and providing the medical staff, the public order office ensures that everything runs smoothly and many volunteers create all the logistics needed for the vaccination. "We have a great network of volunteers and the most efficient volunteer fire brigade in Germany," says Leitterstorf. "Seriously, I am incredibly grateful to the fire brigades, because they were also heavily involved in the flood relief recently. But also, for example, the head of the village of Mülldorf, Heike Borowski, and many others immediately pledged their support. There was no discussion at all.“

In addition, the city also makes locations available to individual practices for their vaccination days. On Sunday, for example, a practice in Hangelar supplied patients with vaccine out of turn. The city also works "in the background" to encourage associations and organisers to reconsider their next activities. "Therefore, there will be no Christmas markets in Sankt Augustin this winter, as sad as that is for everyone involved, but we have met with understanding on all sides," said the mayor. After all, such events do not really fit into the current crisis.

Incidentally, today, Tuesday, the official vaccination centre of the Rhine-Sieg district starts its work in the Huma market in Sankt Augustin. (Original text: Dylan Cem Akalin / Translation: Mareike Graepel)

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