Germany to offer COVID booster shots in September

Elderly and at-risk people to be offered the jabs, health ministry says, amid concerns about spread of the Delta variant.

Germany will start offering COVID booster shots in September and make it easier for 12- to 17-year-olds to get a jab, the health ministry said, amid concerns about the spread of the Delta variant. Health Minister Jens Spahn and his 16 regional peers agreed after talks on Monday that the elderly and at-risk should receive a booster shot, citing concerns about “a reduced or rapidly declining immune response” among some groups. Mobile vaccination teams should be sent into care and nursing homes, the ministry said, to offer Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna booster shots to residents, regardless of which vaccine they received originally.