Photographer: Fabrizio Bensch / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Fabrizio Bensch / AFP / Getty Images
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany will speed up its Covid-19 vaccination program and recover from the temporary shutdown of AstraZeneca Plc’s shot due to concerns about blood clots.
As Europe faces a resurgence of the virus from France to the Czech Republic, Merkel has provided a vision for coming to grips with the crisis, signaling that Germany may need to reverse some of its earlier easing of the lockdown. Three vaccines available and the expected arrival of a Johnson & Johnson injection will help, she said.
“From April, we want to be faster and more flexible, and we can,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin on Friday after talks with German state leaders. “We want to supplement the proverbial German thoroughness with more flexibility.”
Like many of her European colleagues, Merkel is faced with challenges on several fronts. For now, she is caught between the European Union’s vaccination problems, public discontent with her pandemic response, and a resurgence in cases after Germany relaxed lockdown restrictions. Support for her ruling party bloc fell in a poll this week to its lowest in a year.
On Monday, Merkel and state leaders will discuss whether to extend or even tighten restrictions in Europe’s largest economy until April, rather than relaxed, as the government suggested at the beginning of the month. The cases of Covid-19 in Germany rose the most in two months on Thursday.
“We are seeing exponential growth,” Merkel said Friday. “Unfortunately we will have to use the emergency brake.”
Back and forth
Countries across Europe have suspended and reinstated the use of the Astra vaccination shot
Source: Bloomberg
Europe’s efforts to speed up its vaccination campaign against Covid-19 face the challenge of restoring public confidence after a chaotic week of vaccination suspensions, health problems and threats from export bans.
EU officials are trying to look ahead to the second quarter, when vaccination is expected to increase rapidly. On Thursday, the EU drug regulator released everything for the AstraZeneca injection after reports linked it to blood clots in a small number of patients.
“Every time you roll out a vaccine like this to millions and millions of people, there will be coincidental and other events that will happen in parallel with the rollout,” World Health Organization senior adviser Bruce Aylward told reporters Friday.
“What the population is generally looking for is for them to be properly assessed so that their confidence can be assured,” he said.
Merkel spoke about public confidence in vaccines on Friday, saying she is ready to take the AstraZeneca shot.
Sputnik option
The Russian Sputnik vaccine is also an option if it were to be approved by the European Medicines Agency, Merkel said. While a joint European order from Russia would be preferred, “we should only go a German way if necessary,” she said.
Although a decline in the German infection rate reversed in March, the country still has fewer per capita cases than countries like Italy and France, where a renewed four-week shutdown began Friday in Paris and some other regions.
Health Minister Jens Spahn, facing calls from the opposition to resign, said earlier Friday that Germany is in a “third wave” of Covid-19 with a high number of variant virus cases.
“We have some pretty challenging weeks ahead,” he said.
Measures to ramp up Germany’s immunization drive include allowing German doctor’s offices to start AstraZeneca vaccines on April 6, Merkel said. Overall, the plan calls for the gradual extension of vaccination options to physicians and existing vaccine centers.
“The slogan is: vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate,” Merkel said.
– With help from Corinne Gretler
Updates with Merkel comments on growth in Covid business in the sixth paragraph.