Germany | Health minister urges EU to approve vaccine faster

Germany’s health minister demanded that the European Union’s regulatory agency work faster to approve a coronavirus vaccine and bring an end to the suffering on the continent, while other officials suggested yesterday that residents should forgo Christmas shopping as a new lockdown loomed that will close schools and most stores.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and the governors of Germany’s 16 states agreed Sunday to step up the country’s lockdown measures beginning Wednesday and running to Jan. 10 to stop the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases. Merkel said existing restrictions imposed in November failed to significantly reduce the number of new infections. Germany has been hitting records of new daily infections and virus deaths in recent weeks.
Expressing impatience, Health Minister Jens Spahn said in tweets late Sunday that Germany, which has created more than 400 vaccination centers and has activated about 10,000 doctors and medical staff to start mass vaccinations as early as Tuesday, was hamstrung by the lack of regulatory approval.
It was especially galling because the vaccine developed by Germany’s BioNTech and American drugmaker Pfizer has been authorized for use in Britain, the United States, Canada and other countries. But it’s still waiting for approval by the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, and can therefore not be used in Germany yet or in any of the EU’s 27 nations.
The EMA has a Dec. 29 meeting on vaccines but Spahn said the agency’s assessment and approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine should “take place as quickly as possible.”
“This is also about the trust of the citizens in the European Union’s capacity to act,” Spahn wrote. “Every day that we can start sooner with the vaccinations lessens the suffering and protects those who are the most vulnerable.”
Spahn had previously said that going through EMA approval was the right path.
His ministry said that for January, between 3 to 4 million BioNTech vaccination doses were ready to be given in Germany. It said for the first quarter of 2021, up to 11 million vaccination doses were expected.
In recent weeks, hospitals across Germany have repeatedly warned that they were reaching their limits in caring for COVID-19 patients and that staffing on intensive care units was becoming a problem. Yesterday, 4,552 COVID-19 patients were being treated in ICU units, 52% of them on respirators.
Germany’s central disease control center yesterday reported 16,362 new confirmed cases — about 4,000 more than a week before. The Robert Koch Institute reported 188 new deaths, bringing the country’s overall death toll to nearly 22,000.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed to Germans o to support and adhere to the new lockdown measures.
“The virus still has a tight grip on us,” Steinmeier said. “The situation is bitterly serious: Thousands of death cases in one week and an infection scenario that threatens to spin out of control. There is no way we can avoid drastic measures.”
Others urged people to avoid last-minute Christmas shopping or panic buying.
“I wish and I hope that people will only buy what they really need, like groceries,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said. “The faster we get these infections under control, the better it is for everyone.”
In some states, including Saxony in eastern Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia in the west, schools are already closed or mandatory school attendance lifted so parents can keep their children home.
Starting Wednesday, schools nationwide will be closed or will switch to home schooling; most non-food stores will be shuttered, as will businesses such as hairdressers. Restaurant takeout will still be permitted, but no eating or drinking can take place on site.
With the exception of Christmas, the number of people allowed to meet indoors will remain restricted to five, not including children under 14. The sale of fireworks traditionally used to celebrate New Year’s will also be banned as will public outdoor gatherings on New Year’s Eve.
Michael Kretschmer, the governor of Saxony, which has been especially hard hit, told the German news agency dpa that this Christmas, for the first time in his life, he won’t be attending midnight Mass. He urged other Christians to do the same.
“I don’t need it for my belief and I think it is right if all of us hold off during this sensitive time,” Kretschmer said. “Joseph and Mary were also on their own on the Holy Night.” Kirsten Grieshaber, Berlin, AP