That the vaccination campaign has finally picked up speed in Hesse, fortunately also makes itself positively felt in the slowly falling infection figures. And thus it applies to press as far as possible also further on the speed. Therefore the Hessian federal state government decided on today's Monday a further extension of the inoculation campaign. However, this still depends on the availability of the vaccines, which unfortunately do not exist in sufficient quantities to date.
The federal government has announced that due to the progress of vaccination so far, especially in the prioritization groups 1 and 2, the prioritization of certain groups of people will be lifted nationwide, probably starting in June 2021. This means that all citizens in Hesse will also be able to register for a personal vaccination appointment. However, even then it will remain the case that when appointments are allocated, the groups of people to be prioritised will initially still be allocated preferred appointments.
"We all want as many people as possible to receive the important vaccination as quickly as possible. The Hessian vaccination campaign has clearly picked up speed, but even so, we still can't offer everyone an appointment. While vaccine is still a scarce commodity, we are distributing doses as quickly and fairly as possible. We have made good progress in prioritization groups 1 and 2. Almost all vaccinees from these groups have been vaccinated or have had their appointments in a timely manner. Noticeable reductions in the number of infections among the oldest members of our society are the best evidence of this and reinforce our approach. Regional demographic differences are clearly making themselves felt in the vaccination campaign. In many places, large numbers of people in Prioritization Group 3 are already being vaccinated. However, in most parts of Hesse, it will probably take until July for most of this group to receive their vaccinations. To allow the vaccination campaign to progress everywhere, we plan to make registration available to everyone in June, in line with the nationwide vaccination campaign. Where everyone from prioritization group 3 has received an appointment, all others who want to be vaccinated can then successively get their turn," said Hesse's Interior Minister Peter Beuth.
Quarter-based vaccination campaigns and multilingual information
It is also particularly important that the vaccination campaign really reaches everyone, including citizens in socioeconomically disadvantaged places. At the same time, it is intended to increase the willingness to be vaccinated. To this end, the first on-site vaccination campaigns are already being carried out on the initiative of the affected communities with mobile teams. The state expressly supports such neighbourhood-based vaccination campaigns within the currently valid prioritisation rules. After consultation with the municipal umbrella organisations, the municipalities decide on the type and scope of these vaccination campaigns on their own responsibility. The same applies to vaccination campaigns, such as for homeless people.
"Everyone needs and wants vaccination protection. Therefore, the right to vaccination should be able to be implemented as low-threshold as possible. The Vaccination Alliance, the Public Health Service and the local structures we have been developing for years, with which citizens in the most diverse life situations can be reached, help us with the issue of corona vaccination. In this respect, it is right for the municipalities to manage these projects themselves. They know best how their citizens can be reached with a vaccination offer. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration supports these projects and the participating municipalities as needed," notes Health Minister Klose.
Already now, information on Corona vaccination is available online in twelve languages. This will be further disseminated to health offices and community networks with associations and migrant organisations to reach the target group even more effectively. Multilingual video clips have also been produced and can also be distributed via social media channels. Also involved are the structures of HAGE (Hessische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Gesundheitsförderung e.V.).
Pupil vaccination campaign to start before the summer holidays
Another important topic in the vaccination campaign is the vaccination of children and adolescents from the age of 12. The state of Hesse would like to start this before the summer holidays in order to have this group vaccinated at least once before the start of the new school year. In Hesse, this group comprises around 500,000 pupils at general and vocational schools. At the Conference of Health Ministers, the federal states agreed on the goal of offering vaccinations to all 12 to 18 year olds by the end of the summer holidays (in Hesse: 19 to 27 August 2021). The Federal Government has promised to provide the Länder with the additional vaccine required for this purpose. Of the vaccines currently approved in Germany, only the vaccine from the company von Biontech is approved for vaccination in persons as young as 16 years of age. Approval from the age of 12 has been applied for by the manufacturer; it is expected shortly.
"Vaccinating older students is a significant milestone for safe schooling. Together with the teacher vaccinations and self-testing, I am very optimistic that very soon in the new school year we will be largely back to the school day we knew before Corona. And we are all very much looking forward to that," said Minister of Education Prof. Dr. R. Alexander Lorz.
Provided that the approval from 12 years of age is available and there is planning certainty with regard to the additional provision of vaccines by the federal government, the aim is to carry out the initial vaccinations of pupils from 28 June until the start of the summer holidays on 19 July. Pupils will then be able to register for vaccination in advance at their vaccination centre and appointments will be made to ensure that all those registered for this will receive their vaccination appointments within this window of time. The start of registration for students through the immunization portal for vaccination at the immunization centers will be announced in a timely manner.
In principle, the vaccinations of those registered will take place at the immunization centers themselves. The vaccination centres will be allowed to provide for deviating organisational models in individual cases, including the use of mobile teams in schools. From the expected lifting of prioritisation at the beginning of June, vaccination appointments for schoolchildren can also be arranged with paediatricians and adolescent doctors as well as general practitioners. As soon as the additional vaccine doses are made available by the federal government, the share allocated to general practitioners will be distributed separately to paediatricians and adolescents, if possible via pharmaceutical wholesalers. In order to be able to reach as many people as possible, an offer of vaccination is also to be made to the respective accompanying person with parental authority within the framework of the school vaccination campaign.
Vaccination progress: Prioritization groups 1 and 2 nearly fully vaccinated
Up to and including 16. May 2021, with 2,328,258 persons, 37 percent of the Hessian population has already received a first vaccination at the vaccination centers or at physicians in private practice. In addition, 639,062 people have already received their second vaccination (10.2 percent). In total, almost three million first and second vaccinations have already been carried out in Hesse (exactly: 2,967,320). "As a result, all structures - from the vaccination centers to the vaccination alliance to the pilot projects of vaccination by company doctors - have proven that everyone makes an important contribution to the vaccination progress. We are very pleased with this joint achievement of the vaccination centres and the Impfallianz. It shows how efficient the proven structures from the pharmacies to the family doctor's practice are. Since the beginning of April, almost 700,000 vaccinations have already been carried out here in parallel with regular business and practice operations," said Health Minister Kai Klose.
Of the approximately 350.000 people registered in the central appointment system of the vaccination centres in prioritisation group 1 have received an appointment offer; of the 865,000 registered people in prioritisation group 2, almost 853,500 people have received a vaccination appointment offer. Prioritisation group 1 can thus be regarded as almost completely processed. The remaining 2,000 registrations in group 1 (0.6 percent) are only recently registered persons who always receive their vaccination appointments promptly. In prioritization group 2, there are still 11,500 recently registered persons (1.3 percent) who also receive their vaccination appointments promptly. Those in Groups 1 or 2 who are currently registering for the first time will be offered appointments in no more than seven days.
From Prioritization Group 3, 797,000 people have registered so far, of whom about 288,000 have already received vaccination appointments. Additional immunization appointments will be assigned on a rolling basis according to Federal delivery projections. The vaccine quantities provided or announced by the Federal Government for the vaccination centres still amount to between 2.25 and 2.4 million doses per week - in accordance with the decision of the Conference of Minister Presidents. Doses, which corresponds to a share for the Hessian vaccination centers of 170,000 - 180,000 doses.
