Only 100 people have been vaccinated with the 180 doses delivered last Sunday. The 1000 units that were to be used on Monday were also not used. The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia are responsible for the vaccination, which is to happen first via mobile teams in nursing homes. "How much is or can be vaccinated depends not only on the amount of vaccine available, but above all on how many homes enable or want vaccinations at the current time," says Heiko Schmitz of the KV North Rhine.

The vaccinations are therefore preceded by a complex scheduling process, which requires close and time-critical coordination between the municipalities - in terms of prioritising the facilities - and the facilities themselves, which have to fulfil the requirements for vaccination. At the same time, the KV reports the location and quantity of the delivery to the ministry and sets up the vaccination team.

"We have to order the required amount of vaccine from the Ministry of Health, which is responsible for the storage and logistics of the vaccine, within tight deadlines, which is then delivered directly to the facilities in a precisely fitting manner," says Schmitz. All this has apparently not worked as desired in Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg district so far.

The fact that the vaccinations are not injected immediately has no disadvantages for the municipalities. Quantities that are not needed or called off are not lost to the cities and municipalities, but are simply stored further and delivered with the next orders, Schmitz explains. The prepared and ready-to-use vaccine lasts just under a week at refrigerator temperatures.

The guidelines do not provide for passing on the vaccine to hospitals and emergency services, as suggested by the crisis staff of the city of Bonn. "The NRW Ministry of Health decides on the use of the vaccine doses that can be delivered or on the groups to be vaccinated, which clearly focuses on senior citizens' and nursing homes for the start of the vaccinations," says Schmitz. All residents and staff in NRW are to be immunised by the beginning of March.

Meanwhile, several GA readers complained that the Corona hotline of the city of Bonn could not be reached. It is currently switched on with the same amount of staff as usual from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., but is partially overloaded, as deputy city spokesman Marc Hoffmann explains. "We already have a lot of callers from other cities and districts, just like at the beginning of the pandemic, when there were no hotlines in many places." In addition, there are many enquiries about upcoming vaccinations.

Another contrast also raises questions at the moment: In the Bonn hospitals, the number of Covid patients is rising, while the incidence number has dropped from over 200 to 157.6 within a few days. Currently, 141 patients are being cared for in normal wards, 53 people are in intensive care, 34 of them have to be ventilated. However, they do not only come from Bonn, but from the entire surrounding area and partly also from abroad, as Hoffmann explains. "As a result, this number is comparatively high."

The situation in the hospitals also reflects the incidence of infection from three to four weeks ago, as it takes time for the virus to trigger the disease and for symptoms to worsen. Hoffmann also explains the falling incidence with fewer tests. Whether less testing has been done, fewer people have had themselves tested or there are initial effects of the lockdown, he cannot say. "But we had a run on rapid tests before the Christmas holidays. We now have to wait and see, we won't know more for one or two weeks."