Pharmacies all over Germany have not been able to issue corona vaccination certificates since Wednesday. The German Pharmacists Association (DAV) announced on Thursday that the issuing of certificates had been stopped in consultation with the Federal Ministry of Health. The Handelsblatt it was possible to generate guest access for a non-existent pharmacy owner “with the help of professionally forged documents” on the DAV server; with this then two vaccination certificates were issued. Therefore, the registered sites are currently being checked. But so far there has been no evidence of other unauthorized access.
The Handelsblatt said on request that it was correct that the sheet had uncovered a serious security gap in the creation of digital vaccination records. “However not that Handelsblatt gaining access to the system himself; two IT security specialists have disclosed the vulnerability and thus demonstrated that there are significant deficiencies in the portal, “said a publisher’s spokeswoman.
According to the DAV, it has not yet been determined when the pharmacies will be able to issue vaccination certificates again. However, it can be assumed that the more than 25 million vaccination certificates that have been issued so far all come from legally registered pharmacies. (07/22/2021)
Spain and the Netherlands are likely to become areas of high incidence
According to a media report, the federal government wants to declare Spain and the Netherlands to be high-incidence areas on Friday. The Funke media group cites government circles in its preliminary report. This means that travelers who have not been fully vaccinated would have to go into a ten-day quarantine, which cannot be ended with a negative test until five days later.
On July 9, Germany declared all of Spain a risk area. With this classification, the quarantine can be bypassed with a negative test. It does not apply to those who have been vaccinated or recovered. (07/22/2021)
Police: Doctors are said to have issued false corona vaccination cards
Doctors from a group practice in the Gifhorn district are said to have issued false corona vaccination cards – and to a “larger extent”. So far, the number can only be speculated, a two-digit number is possible, said a spokesman for the Hildesheim public prosecutor’s office. Investigators from the police and the public prosecutor’s office searched the practice and documents and computer data were seized. According to the information, the doctors are being investigated for commercial fraud, the issuing of incorrect health certificates and bodily harm.
The investigation was preceded by an anonymous report, the spokesman said. Accordingly, there were allegations of sham vaccinations against measles – the doctors are said to have injected children with saline instead of the vaccine. In the course of the investigation, it turned out that the corona vaccination was also “not right,” as the spokesman said. A search warrant was issued and the practice was searched on Wednesday. The suspicion that measles vaccines were not injected led to the medical profession being investigated for bodily harm. If convicted, suspects face a prison sentence of up to ten years on charges of commercial fraud alone. (07/22/2021)
Schleswig-Holstein is loosening up
Starting next Monday, larger private meetings with up to 25 people are again allowed in Schleswig-Holstein. So far, a maximum of ten people from as many households have been allowed to meet in the north. Children under 14 years of age, convalescents and those who have been vaccinated are not included.
With the new Corona regulation, which the state cabinet has now decided, there are a number of other simplifications: no more mandatory testing for visits to indoor areas in restaurants, no limit on the number of participants at celebrations and receptions. However, conditions such as a maximum utilization of 50 percent still apply. If you want to stay in a hotel, you have to prove a negative test that is no more than 48 hours old. However, a follow-up test is no longer required. You don’t have to wear a mask outside on ships. The remaining test obligations in sport and in child and youth welfare services will no longer apply in the future. (07/22/2021)
Incidence rises to 12.2
The seven-day incidence has been rising continuously for more than two weeks. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Thursday morning, it was 12.2 – the previous day the value was 11.4 and the most recent low on July 6th was 4.9. Accordingly, the health authorities last reported 1890 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. A week ago, the value for Germany was 1642 infections.
According to the new information, 42 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 32 dead. The RKI has counted 3,750,503 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not detected. (07/22/2021)
Countries are increasingly relying on mobile vaccination
In view of the falling demand for corona vaccinations, the federal states are increasingly relying on flexible solutions in order to reach more people. This is the result of a survey by the German Press Agency. Interest in vaccination is waning in many places, and vaccination centers are being closed in some places. In addition, there are more and more mobile vaccination teams, and in many places people can get an injection without an appointment. Despite the falling numbers, only a few vaccine doses have expired so far
According to information from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the number of vaccine doses administered in Germany is falling. Only 572,482 cans were injected on Tuesday, with a peak of 1.5 million on June 9th. According to the Central Institute for Health Insurance, the vaccination centers in particular recorded a decline. In the Hessian vaccination centers, around 20 percent of the people did not appear for their appointments, as the Interior Ministry announced. In Berlin, too, according to the health administration, around 20 percent of the appointments were not used. According to the Ministry of Health, the national vaccination centers in Thuringia are only half full. In Baden-Württemberg, the number of first vaccinations in the vaccination centers has recently plummeted by 70 percent, according to the Ministry of Health.
The low occupancy rate means that more and more vaccination centers are closing. Instead, many countries rely on flexible vaccination offers. For example, mobile vaccination teams are out and about in pedestrian zones, at universities or in front of football stadiums. In many places you can now get an injection in vaccination centers without an appointment.
Again and again there is discussion about offering additional vaccination incentives in order to increase the vaccination rate again. Most recently, for example, Berlin’s SPD chairman Franziska Giffey had proposed a kind of culture ticket to encourage people to have a corona vaccination and at the same time support the culture and events industry. Their idea: Those who get vaccinated get a free ticket for a theater performance, another event, a boat trip on the Spree or something similar. The public sector bears the costs. “We have to get people to vaccinate and go unconventional ways that also create an incentive,” Giffey emphasized in an interview with the German press agency. (07/22/2021)
The federal government will again equip nursing homes with protective masks
The cabinet approved the first part of a new civil protection strategy on Wednesday. First of all, a “National Health Protection Reserve” is to be set up. In the medium term, however, provision for crises such as floods and major fires is to be improved. A joint federal and state crisis center is planned, in which aid organizations will also be involved.
This should make Germany better prepared for future crises, said Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU). The corona pandemic painfully demonstrated dependencies. “To buy in an emergency is always more expensive,” said Spahn. The new reserve should be used in the event of pandemics and disasters such as now in western Germany, as well as in the event that Germany has to stand by allies.
Care facilities are now to be equipped with protective masks for autumn and winter. The aim is to equip the homes “for everything that can develop”. According to Spahn, the National Health Reserve, which is currently being set up, contains one billion surgical masks and more than 250 million masks with the FFP2 standard. You need intelligent systems with manufacturers so that medical products can be placed on the market before their expiration date. The aim is to avoid the destruction of stored material as much as possible. (07/21/2021)
Vaccinated more than 50 million people once
According to Health Minister Jens Spahn, more than 50 million people in Germany have been vaccinated at least once. That is 60.2 percent of the total population. 39.3 million people or 47.3 percent are fully vaccinated. “But that’s not enough against Delta: Please get vaccinated,” Spahn wrote on Twitter.
Spahn and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer want to inform about the implementation status of the National Health Reserve, which was decided on last year, in the course of the day. It is intended to make Germany less dependent on international supply chains in the event of a crisis, for example by storing important medical products. (07/21/2021)