Berlin: Germany expects to receive the first deliveries of BioNTech vaccines adapted to the omicron coronavirus variant in the first quarter of 2022, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said.
"We have also reserved a large batch of vaccines from BioNTech through the European Commission. This will be mostly a vaccine already adapted for the omicron variant. We hope that we will receive a part of these 80 million doses as early as the first quarter," he said at a press conference on Thursday.
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He noted that "booster" vaccination for the German government was currently the centerpiece of the fight against the pandemic, which is why Berlin intends to actively purchase vaccines in order to maintain a high rate of vaccination.
"We cannot allow our successful booster vaccination campaign -- 1.5 million vaccine doses were given yesterday -- to be stalled by a shortage of vaccines. Therefore, we are negotiating additional vaccines with other countries, such as Portugal, Poland and Bulgaria," Lauterbach said, noting that the details of these agreements will be announced later.
ANI
