German health minister wants to review his vaccination strategy

Germany must review its vaccine strategy against covid-19 to tackle the Omicron variant and ensure it can develop a new vaccine quickly if it is faced with a more deadly coronavirus variant in the future, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said.

Lauterbach, who was appointed health minister last month, made his comments in an advanced version of an interview to be published in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.

“If we get a variant that is as contagious as the Omicron, but significantly more deadly, we should be able to develop and produce a new vaccine in a very short period of time “, Lauterbach said.

The government plans to set up a permanent system for the purchase and supply of photographs quickly at any time because there could be new serious epidemics, he said.

“We must not fall into the naive assumption that it (the pandemic) will soon be over. It’s not over, ”he said.

Germany closed large vaccination centers in several states last summer when demand for covid-19 vaccines briefly stumbled before resuming.

Omicron variant now accounts for 44% of coronavirus infections in Germanysaid the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for Infectious Diseases.

Saturday, the RKI counted 55,889 newly reported corona infections within 24 hours, more than double the number a week earlier.

Photo by REUTERS / Christian Mang