Senior citizens and home health care recipients take priority NRW: Vaccinations to start in December
Düsseldorf · The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is setting up 53 vaccination centers for administering coronavirus vaccines. Senior citizens and home health care recipients are first in line, with the bulk of the citizenry having to wait for awhile until they can receive an immunization.
The state of NRW is working flat out to set up the 53 vaccination centers that are planned. Some new details have become known from sources within the government.
- Vaccinations: NRW expects the vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer to be available from mid-December. The Astrazeneca vaccine is to follow in February/March. Both vaccines must be administered twice. They are to be stored at a central, unspecified location. Since the Astrazeneca vaccine is much less costly to store, it could be delivered directly to the vaccination centers. Biontech's product must first be prepared by the pharmacies - 100,000 vaccine doses could be produced per day.
In the early phase from mid-December to around April 2021, the vaccination centers themselves would vaccinate only those who are in need of care but still live at home and are sufficiently mobile, as well as senior citizens. The first group will receive a referral from their family doctor, the second group will only need to show their identity card.
- Mobile teams: At the same time, mobile vaccination teams, either from the vaccination centers or recruited by authorized general practitioners, will travel to nursing homes to vaccinate the residents and employees. Districts and cities are to report to the vaccination centers with a list of their nursing homes, including the number of residents and employees. The work of the mobile teams should be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2021. In this first phase, the country expects to have about 10,000 vaccinations per 100,000 inhabitants per month at the vaccination center, and the mobile teams and hospitals are expected to vaccinate about 4,000 per 100,000 inhabitants.
In the second phase, from March to July 2021, outpatient nurses and critical infrastructure personnel - such as firefighters and police officers - can be vaccinated at the vaccination centers. The mass vaccination of the population will be carried out by general practitioners from mid 2021.
- Chancellor's appeal: Chancellor Angela Merkel has appealed to the people in Germany not to let up in their efforts against the coronavirus over Christmas and New Year's. Especially at this time she would like "that we stand up for each other and with each other more than ever", Merkel said in the Bundestag. The Chancellor prepared citizens for an extension of the coronavirus measures until January. "In view of the high incidence of infection, we assume that the restrictions must remain until the beginning of January, at least for the vast majority of the Federal Republic of Germany.“
Bonn vaccination center in the WCCB
The City of Bonn will establish a vaccination center at the WCCB Congress Center. It is to be set up from December 15. Mayor Katja Dörner (Greens) believes at this time that a coronavirus vaccine will be available in Bonn in January at the earliest. With the help of doctors in private practice and other medical personnel, the city wants to vaccinate 1,000 citizens daily at the WCCB. In addition, mobile teams will be out giving vaccinations on location, for example in nursing homes.
