Fewer and fewer Austrians follow vaccination recommendation

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Fewer and fewer people in Austria follow the National Immunization Panel (NIG) recommendations on corona vaccination. This is shown by data published online by the Ministry of Health. According to the data, only over half are vaccinated, according to the expert recommendation. That is 817,000 fewer people than in July. The Ministry of Health now wants to discontinue the corresponding statistics and only publish the number of vaccine doses administered.

Since the end of June, the Ministry of Health has published online how many people follow the expert recommendations for the Corona vaccination. At that time, 5.6 million were vaccinated according to the NIG recommendation – or 62 percent of the population. However, the number has fallen steadily since then: currently, only 4.8 million follow the advice of the vaccination experts (53 percent).

The decline is particularly sharp among older age groups. For example, the vaccination coverage rate of those over 85 years old has fallen from 84 to 61 percent, and for those aged 75 to 84, from 86 to 71. Overall, seniors over 65 still follow the recommendations of the National Vaccination Panel most closely. Vaccination coverage is highest among 65- to 74-year-olds, at 72 percent.

The fourth vaccination recommended starting at age 12

The vaccination panel has recently expanded its recommendations for Corona vaccination several times. Since the end of August, the experts have recommended the fourth vaccination (“booster vaccination”) from the age of twelve instead of 60. For those over 60, the interval between the third vaccination was reduced to four months. Before the summer, the booster recommendation had only applied to over-65s or at-risk groups.

How many people follow the NIG recommendation in total and how many do not, however, will only be publicly available until mid-December. The Ministry of Health announced a new change in the Corona statistics on Tuesday: According to it, the daily publication of the vaccination coverage rate will only take place until December 15, according to the NIG recommendation. In the future, only how many people have completed the first vaccination series (first and second vaccination) and how many have also received the third vaccination (“basic immunization”) and a “booster vaccination” (fourth or more) will be reported.

The ministry’s rationale for changing the vaccination statistics was that the vaccination panel’s recommendations went into great detail about the individual factors of specific population groups. Instead of showing this level of detail in vaccination coverage rates, it said, the focus is now on vaccination intervals. In addition, a ministry spokesperson said the goal is to counteract a “dynamic adjustment of vaccination rates” following changes in vaccination recommendations.