Germans, Austrians line up for Covid shots

(Representative photo)

Germans and Austrians are rushing to get vaccinated against the coronavirus as infections soar across Europe and governments impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, figures showed yesterday. Germany and Austria have among the lowest rates of vaccination in western Europe and are now the epicentre of a new wave of the pandemic as winter grips the continent. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week said he was cautious about rising cases in Europe, warning of gathering “storm clouds” of infections. Britain has had much higher case loads than the rest of western Europe since the summer, but those rates are coming down just as they are rising in central and eastern Europe. The German health ministry said 436,000 people received a shot on Tuesday, including 300,000 boosters, the highest number in about three months. Queues have been forming at vaccination centres around the country. “It is a sign that many citizens have recognised the need,” government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said. But he added that the vaccination rate was still not high enough. About 65% of Austria’s population is fully vaccinated and about 68% of Germany’s, well behind the Netherlands and countries like Italy and Spain that were much harder hit in the early waves of the pandemic. The Netherlands said it was running short of Covid-19 tests as it registered more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day in a row, the highest since the pandemic began. Sabine Dittmar, health expert for Germany’s Social Democrats, said she hoped 1.4mn people could be vaccinated a day if shots are administered at companies, by family doctors and by mobile vaccine teams, as well as at vaccination centres.