Because of falling vaccination numbers: politicians demand “more creative vaccination offers”

The seven-day incidence is increasing, the number of daily vaccinations has been falling for days. Politicians now want “more creative” offers to make vaccination easier and more attractive. Vaccination prize raffles are also under discussion.

The more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading more and more, and at the same time people’s willingness to vaccinate is falling. Experts and politicians are now calling for vaccination to be made easier and less laborious.

The health policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sabine Dittmar, suggests making “more creative vaccination offers”. Citizens should also be able to be vaccinated in pedestrian zones, housing estates and at events, said Dittmar in the “Welt”.

The Marburger Bund doctors’ union sees it similarly: “The local authorities need a little more creativity,” said chairwoman Susanne Johna of the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”. “We also have to speak to people directly and not wait until they come to the vaccination center or the family doctor. The lower the threshold, the better,” says Johna. It is crucial that you now reach all those who are still hesitating or want to be convinced.

DIVI president proposes vaccination lottery

Intensive care physicians also urge further efforts to increase the vaccination rate. Mobile vaccination teams are useful in city centers and large meeting places such as football stadiums, said the President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVi), Gernot Marx, the “Handelsblatt”.

“In addition, we should take an example of campaigns like the one in the USA and combine the vaccination with a raffle for a prize of hundreds of thousands of euros.” He sees intensive care medicine well equipped for the next few months. “I look to autumn and a possible fourth wave with respect, but not with panic.”

Number of daily vaccinations is falling

Saar Prime Minister Tobias Hans also spoke out in favor of additional incentives in the form of lotteries. “One could think of a raffle in which, for example, a bicycle, a foreign language course or another nice prize is given out among those who are vaccinated,” said the CDU politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group. Mobile vaccination teams and special campaigns are particularly necessary in socially disadvantaged areas.

In the past two weeks, the number of vaccinations per day in Germany has decreased significantly. According to figures from the Robert Koch Institute, 699,500 vaccine doses were administered on Tuesday, 917,000 on the Tuesday of the previous week and more than a million doses on the Tuesdays of the three weeks before.

So far, more than 57 percent of people in Germany have received a first dose of vaccine, around 40 percent are fully vaccinated.

More new infections and a higher infection rate

The main reason for concern is that the delta variant, which first appeared in India, is spreading rapidly. It dominated for the first time with a share of 59 percent, according to the latest evaluation by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for the previous week (25th calendar week, June 21-27) on Wednesday evening.

Today the RKI recorded 970 new corona infections within 24 hours, slightly more cases than in the previous week. A week ago the value was 892 infections. The RKI gave the seven-day incidence nationwide as 5.2 (previous day: 5.1; previous week: 5.1).

The reproduction number, which is decisive for the speed of spread of the coronavirus, is above the threshold of 1. The RKI gave the so-called 7-day R-value on Thursday as 1.09 (previous day: 1.01). This means that 100 infected people infect an additional 109 people. The R-value represents the occurrence of the infection 8 to 16 days ago. If it is below 1 for a longer period of time, the infection process subsides; if it is consistently higher, the number of cases increases.

The R-value was well below 1 for many weeks, but recently rose relatively continuously. According to the new information, 31 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 63 dead.