Corona cases fall: vaccinations for refugees

The Berlin Senate wants to vaccinate refugees from Ukraine against Corona as soon as possible.

Due to Russia's military attack, a wave of refugees is to be expected in the coming months, said health senator Ulrike Gote (Greens) on Monday (28 Feb. 2022) in the health committee of the House of Representatives. The vaccination rate in Ukraine is low, she said, with only 35 per cent of people vaccinated twice and only 1.7 per cent vaccinated three times. It therefore makes a lot of sense to have vaccination capacity and vaccination centres ready, she said. "We will then enable and offer vaccination to this group very quickly."

No strain in hospitals

Apart from that, Gote sees a clear decline in corona infections and charges. Although the seven-day incidence remains at a higher level of more than 1100, hospital admissions are decreasing, "which strongly suggests that the wave is levelling off". Neither in the intensive care units nor in the normal wards are overloads to be expected now. "In this respect, the situation here is rather relaxed." The same applies to the old people's and nursing homes.

Vaccination Centre at Messe closed from Tuesday

This Monday, vaccinations will be carried out for the last time at the vaccination centre in the Messe. From Tuesday, there will then still be two large Senate vaccination centres, in the ICC and the former Tegel Airport, as well as two more vaccination centres, Gote said. Most recently, three-quarters of vaccinations were carried out in doctors' offices. Fewer and fewer people were going to the vaccination centres. However, there is still a demand for the so-called basic immunisation with the first and second vaccination, said Gote. In addition, there are the booster vaccinations and the fourth vaccinations. Therefore, demand could increase again in the second quarter of this year.

Vaccinations with Novavax vaccine start

Vaccinations with the Novavax preparation also began on Monday. It should be used in the vaccination centres of the Land Berlin in Tegel and in the drive-in Lichtenberg. Nuvaxovid is a so-called inactivated vaccine. It does not contain any genetic information such as mRNA or DNA. In some federal states, vaccinations with the Novavax substance were already possible from Saturday. The Standing Commission on Vaccination (Stiko) had advocated the use of this preparation from the age of 18 - with two doses at least three weeks apart. According to the health administration, Berlin will initially receive 63,000 vaccine doses from Novavax, half for the two vaccination centres and half for doctors' practices and hospitals.