End of the vaccination centers: The really last injection

Ekkehard Kerp conducts the information talks. But shortly before the end there is hardly anyone who he could enlighten. So the doctor sits at his desk in his chamber and watches videos on the iPad – until someone else comes. Every few days, Kerp drove from his general practice near Koblenz to the vaccination center in Mainz to help. It went on like this for two years, since the beginning of the Corona vaccination campaign. “In the beginning, we handled very large numbers here,” says Kerp. Several thousand vaccinations a day. People stood in line and were smuggled through the various stations in unison: registration, information, vaccination, deregistration. Kerp says: “The vaccination centers made sense.”

That was once. At the end of the year, practically all of the remaining facilities of this type close – including the vaccination center in the west of Mainz, which was housed in an old school building. “Everything has its time,” says Kerp. “We have achieved a lot. But now, in terms of effort and results, you have to think about something else. ”According to the Robert Koch Institute, a total of almost 65 million people in Germany have received at least one corona vaccination, that is almost 78 percent of them Population. Many have been vaccinated multiple times. A total of more than 190 million injections were given within two years – many of them in the vaccination centers of the federal states, the number of which was more than 400 nationwide at its peak.

Two years ago, it only seemed possible to supply millions of people with the novel corona vaccines within a short period of time in the hastily converted gymnasiums and exhibition halls, in community centers and old school buildings. Where concerts and trade fairs once took place, trained employees vaccinated every minute: sleeves up, needle in, sleeves down again. In addition to the countless test tents in pedestrian zones and squares, the vaccination centers were the most visible sign that Corona would determine the pace of public life for some time.

Four appointments in one day

In Mainz, at the height of the campaign, a number of vaccination rooms were in operation at the same time. A corridor connects the cabins, in front of each door there are several wooden chairs for those waiting. On one of the last days only one room is open, nobody has to wait anyway. Just four people to be vaccinated had made an appointment for that day in advance, and a good two dozen other people came by at short notice. “A moment ago there was a mother with her two children who came for the third vaccination,” says a medical worker who wishes to remain anonymous. She’s scheduled to “vaccinate” that day, so she puts the needles. “Most of those who are still coming now are about prevention,” says the young woman. “Only one said that he was being vaccinated for professional reasons.” The facility-related vaccination requirement for medical and nursing staff is controversial and expires at the end of the year.

Also in the new year, the federal government is withdrawing from financing vaccination centers and mobile teams. So far, Berlin had taken on half of all costs to support the federal states. “In view of the high vaccination rates and falling demand, the resident doctors and pharmacies are able to take over the corona vaccinations,” said Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD). “That’s why we are transferring the vaccination campaign into standard care.” In the new year, the federal states and municipalities are free to finance the remaining teams and centers from their own resources.

But hardly any country makes use of it. In Baden-Württemberg, all 26 vaccination centers are closed, as are all 80 facilities in Bavaria. The 157 mobile vaccination teams in Lower Saxony will also no longer be used in the new year. The vaccination offers of the municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia are also discontinued. Cities and municipalities should “limit themselves to a small number of support structures” should it be necessary again in the short term to vaccinate certain groups of people quickly, as a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health in Düsseldorf announced. The state of Berlin is also discontinuing its “state corona vaccination campaign”, as reported by the Senate Department for Health. The last vaccination center in the capital closes at the end of the year. In Hamburg, too, two institutions are finishing their work.