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COVID-19 VACCINES

Berlin offers Covid jabs in vaccination centres without appointments

Berlin is ramping up its Covid vaccine rollout - and will offer spontaneous jabs to residents in centres with no prior appointment.

Published: 21 July 2021 10:23 CEST
Berlin offers Covid jabs in vaccination centres without appointments
Berliners queue for a Covid jab at Hermannplatz on July 16th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Fabian Sommer

Up to this point, people in the capital have had to book an appointment at the large vaccination centres dotted around the city. 

But from Friday, residents can drop by three centres – without having to register in advance.

From July 23rd, vaccinations will be possible everyday from 2 to 5pm without an appointment – at the centres in Tegel, the exhibition grounds (the Messe) in Charlottenburg and at the Erika Heß ice stadium in Wedding.

The offer is in place initially for the next four weeks, said the Berlin Senate on Tuesday. 

“We are prepared to receive many spontaneous vaccination guests from Friday in the afternoons, and would be pleased if lots of Berliners take advantage of this vaccination offer,” the management of the Corona-Impfzentrum Messe Berlin in the west of the city told regional broadcaster RBB24.

Those who want to get a jab in the centres must be registered in Berlin, and bring their ID card, said the Senate. 

It comes as three of Berlin’s six vaccination centres are set to close. In Tempelhof, vaccinations will be given for the last time on Tuesday before it closes its doors. Meanwhile, the Arena and the Velodrom will shut by the end of August.

Germany recently announced it was winding down vaccination centres and moving to community driven vaccines. That’s because there is a lower demand for jabs in Germany currently and centres are expensive to run. 

READ ALSO: Why Covid vaccine demand is dropping in Germany

Berlin says vaccinations protect against severe Covid

Berlin’s Urban Development Senator Sebastian Scheel, of The Left party, stressed that vaccinations protect against severe cases of Covid-19 and, in most cases, Covid infections.

Currently, 433 so-called ‘vaccination breakthroughs’ have been registered in Berlin, he said – that is, people who get Covid despite being fully vaccinated.

Scheel said that figure was low in relation to the number of people who are now fully vaccinated. “This shows that vaccinations really help against infection and against the Delta variant,” he said. 

About 2.17 million people (59.1 percent) in Berlin have received at least one jab, and 1.7 million people (46.3 percent) have been fully vaccinated.

The Left politician described the willingness of people to be vaccinated in Berlin as “high”, but urged people to continue to go and get their jabs.

READ ALSO: ‘We need more ads’: Germany moves focus of vaccine drive to target undecided 

Pop-up vaccine spots in Berlin

The city has also been hosting pop-up Covid vaccinations in parts of the city. For instance, people can get a jab daily at the Ikea parking lot in Lichtenberg and on Friday at the Neukölln City Hall (Rathaus Neukölln).

At the drive-in at Ikea on Landsberger Allee, vaccinations are given with Moderna, according to the district office. Even without a car, those willing to be vaccinated can drop by daily – including weekends – from 11am to 9pm, according to the Lichtenberg district. ID and vaccination card must be brought and the offer is only for people registered in Berlin.

At the vaccination drive in Neukölln later this week, however, people can get their shot regardless of their place of residence. However, an “official identification document” is necessary, said the local council. 

The vaccine pop-up takes place on Friday at Rathaus Neukölln between 10am and 5pm.

In view of the large crowds last Friday at a vaccine drive on Hermannplatz, the district moved the event to a different location, and also increased the capacity: now, instead of four doctors, up to eight will be in attendance. 

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COVID-19 VACCINES

Italy’s constitutional court upholds Covid vaccine mandate as fines kick in

Judges on Thursday dismissed legal challenges to Italy's vaccine mandate as "inadmissible” and “unfounded”, as 1.9 million people face fines for refusing the jab.

Published: 2 December 2022 12:11 CET
Italy's constitutional court upholds Covid vaccine mandate as fines kick in

Judges were asked this week to determine whether or not vaccine mandates introduced by the previous government during the pandemic – which applied to healthcare and school staff as well as over-50s – breached the fundamental rights set out by Italy’s constitution.

Italy became the first country in Europe to make it obligatory for healthcare workers to be vaccinated, ruling in 2021 that they must have the jab or be transferred to other roles or suspended without pay.

The Constitutional Court upheld the law in a ruling published on Thursday, saying it considered the government’s requirement for healthcare personnel to be vaccinated during the pandemic period neither unreasonable nor disproportionate.

Judges ruled other questions around the issue as inadmissible “for procedural reasons”, according to a court statement published on Thursday.

This was the first time the Italian Constitutional Court had ruled on the issue, after several regional courts previously dismissed challenges to the vaccine obligation on constitutional grounds.

A patient being administered a Covid jab.

Photo by Pascal GUYOT / AFP

One Lazio regional administrative court ruled in March 2022 that the question of constitutional compatibility was “manifestly unfounded”.

Such appeals usually centre on the question of whether the vaccine requirement can be justified in order to protect the ‘right to health’ as enshrined in the Italian Constitution.

READ ALSO: Italy allows suspended anti-vax doctors to return to work

Meanwhile, fines kicked in from Thursday, December 1st, for almost two million people in Italy who were required to get vaccinated under the mandate but refused.

This includes teachers, law enforcement and healthcare workers, and the over 50s, who face fines of 100 euros each under rules introduced in 2021.

Thursday was the deadline to justify non-compliance with the vaccination mandate due to health reasons, such as having contracted Covid during that period.

Italy’s health minister on Friday however appeared to suggest that the new government may choose not to enforce the fines.

“It could cost more for the state to collect the fines” than the resulting income, Health Minister Orazio Schillaci told Radio Rai 1.

He went on to say that it was a matter for the Economy and Finance Ministry, but suggested that the government was drawing up an amendment to the existing law.

READ ALSO: Covid vaccines halved Italy’s death toll, study finds

The League, one of the parties which comprises the new hard-right government, is pushing for fines for over-50s to be postponed until June 30th 2023.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had promised a clear break with her predecessor’s health policies, after her Brothers of Italy party railed against the way Mario Draghi’s government handled the pandemic in 2021 when it was in opposition.

At the end of October, shortly after taking office, the new government allowed doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to return to work earlier than planned after being suspended for refusing the Covid vaccine.

There has been uncertainty about the new government’s stance after the deputy health minister in November cast doubt on the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, saying he was “not for or against” vaccination.

Italy’s health ministry continues to advise people in at-risk groups to get a booster jab this winter, and this week stressed in social media posts that vaccination against Covid-19 and seasonal flu remained “the most effective way to protect ourselves and our loved ones, especially the elderly and frail”.

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