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Germany aims to offer Covid jabs to teens from age 12 by end of August

Germany wants to offer Covid-19 vaccines to all children aged 12 and over by the end of August once a jab is approved for younger people by the European regulator, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Thursday.

Published: 6 May 2021 22:09 CEST

Germany aims to offer Covid jabs to teens from age 12 by end of August

Children at a school in Dresden. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Robert Michael

All 12- to 18-year-olds will be offered vaccines in the summer “on the condition of the expected approval, if nothing unforeseen happens”, Spahn said after a meeting with regional health ministers in Berlin.

The European Medicines Agency said this week it had begun evaluating the use of Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds, after a similar request in the United States.

The vaccine is currently only approved in the EU for use on people aged 16 and over, but its possible authorisation for children is seen as a crucial step towards achieving herd immunity.

READ ALSO: Germany reaches milestone of 30 percent of population vaccinated against Covid

Germany has said it aims to make jabs available to all adults from some time in June, lifting its priority list that decides who gets to go first.

But Spahn also said Thursday that the AstraZeneca vaccine will now be offered to everyone immediately.

Germany has previously recommended the AstraZeneca jab only for people 60 and older following concerns over blood clotting cases among younger recipients of the vaccine.

After a slow start to its vaccination campaign, Germany began accelerating its inoculation campaign in April and last week vaccinated more than a million people in one day.

Some 30.6 percent of the population had received a first dose by Thursday, according to official data.

People who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will no longer have to abide by curfews and contact restrictions under a draft law passed by the parliament on Thursday.

The new freedoms, which also apply to those who have recovered from Covid-19, could come in as soon as this weekend.

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Could there be a new wave of Covid-19 in Germany this autumn?

More people donning face masks in supermarkets, friends cancelling plans last minute due to getting sick with Covid-19. We might have seen some of those familiar reminders recently that the coronavirus is still around, but could there really be a resurgence of the virus like we experienced during the pandemic years?

According to virologists, the answer seems to be ‘maybe’: since July, the number of people newly infected with Covid-19 has been slowly rising from a very low level.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), nine people per 100,000 inhabitants became newly infected in Germany last week. A year ago, there were only around 270 reported cases.

Various Corona variants are currently on the loose in the country. According to the RKI, the EG.5 (also called Eris) and XBB.1.16 lines were each detected in the week ending September 3rd with a share of just under 23 percent.

The highly mutated variant BA.2.86 (Pirola), which is currently under observation by the World Health Organisation (WHO), also arrived in the country this week, according to RKI.

High number of unreported case

The RKI epidemiologists also warned about a high number of unreported cases since hardly any testing is done. They pointed out that almost half of all registered sewage treatment plants report an increasing viral load in wastewater tests.

The number of hospital admissions has also increased slightly, but are still a far cry from the occupation rate amid the pandemic. Last week it was two per 100,000 inhabitants. In the intensive care units, only 1.2 percent of all beds are occupied by Covid-19 patients.

Still, a good three-quarters (76.4 percent) of people in Germany have been vaccinated at least twice and thus have basic immunity, reported RKI.

Since Monday, doctors’ offices have been vaccinating with the adapted vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer, available to anyone over 12 years old, with a vaccine for small children set to be released the following week and one for those between 5 and 11 to come out October 2nd.

But Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has so far only recommended that people over 60 and those with pre-existing conditions get vaccinated.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Who should get a Covid jab this autumn in Germany?

“The pandemic is over, the virus remains,” he said. “We cannot predict the course of coming waves of corona, but it is clear that older people and people with pre-existing conditions remain at higher risk of becoming severely ill from Covid-19”

The RKI also recommended that people with a cold voluntarily wear a mask. Anyone exhibiting cough, cold, sore throat or other symptoms of a respiratory illness should voluntarily stay at home for three to five days and take regular corona self-tests.

However, further measures such as contact restrictions are not necessary, he said.

One of many diseases

As of this autumn, Covid-19 could be one of many respiratory diseases. As with influenza, there are no longer absolute infection figures for coronavirus.

Saarbrücken pharmacist Thorsten Lehr told German broadcaster ZDF that self-protection through vaccinations, wearing a mask and getting tested when symptoms appear are prerequisites for surviving the Covid autumn well.

Only a new, more aggressive mutation could completely turn the game around, he added.

On April 7th of this year, Germany removed the last of its over two-year long coronavirus restrictions, including mask-wearing in some public places.

READ ALSO: German doctors recommend Covid-19 self-tests amid new variant

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