Health Minister Anschober: Over one million fresh vaccine doses in March

Spread the love

Read Time:1 Minute, 51 Second

Austria’s vaccination campaign picks up speed. More than one million vaccine doses will be delivered in March.

Residents and employees of retirement and nursing homes were almost completely vaccinated as planned. This is also the main reason why the number of infections and deaths there has fallen sharply. Health Minister Rudi Anschober: “This is excellent proof that vaccinations work and are effective. This gives us great hope.”

The statistical figures, which are published daily on the dashboard of the Ministry of Social Affairs, prove that the Länder are vaccinating as specified in the vaccination plan. Up to and including Friday, 620,000 vaccinations have already been recorded in the e-vaccination card. On Friday was the strongest vaccination day so far, with nearly 39,000 (registered) vaccinations. Currently, more than 90 percent of the vaccinations are already in the e-vaccination certificate.

The – current – phase 1 of the vaccination plan primarily covers the staff and residents of old people’s and nursing homes, significant, particularly exposed, parts of the healthcare professions and the group of people over 80. While the people in old people’s and nursing homes have already been vaccinated to a large extent and vaccination among the healthcare professions is also well advanced, the group of people over 80 is now being vaccinated intensively.

It is therefore quite clear that, due to the large proportion of employees of nursing homes and health care professions, a majority of the elderly are not reflected in the current vaccination statistics. In addition to this, the figures on the vaccination schedule, which were colocated on Saturday, were misinterpreted (there is no group of 75-year-olds in phase 1) and calculation errors were made. So far, 32 percent of vaccinations have gone to people over 75, not 22 percent.

Austria’s vaccination campaign, like vaccination in all EU member states, is dependent on delivery dates and quantities. Anschober: “March will now be the month in which we receive large delivery quantities for the first time – a total of around 1.1 million doses. From April onwards, there will again be a large increase. Starting next week, the federal states will therefore be particularly challenged with the implementation of vaccinations.”