The facility-related vaccination requirement will apply in just under three weeks, but according to Christoph Göbel (CSU), the authorities are still largely in the dark as to how to deal with it. “We don’t have any specific implementation rules yet,” complained the Munich district administrator on Thursday at his weekly Corona press conference. Göbel fears that enforcing vaccination requirements for staff in medical and nursing facilities will be anything but trivial and will take too long.
The mere fact that a “uniform reporting system” was announced to the district office makes the district administrator more nervous than helping to calm him down. “I have a lot of respect for that,” he cautiously formulates his concerns. His experiences with new software in the corona pandemic are not the best. New interfaces or modified programs have often presented the authorities with problems. The fact that the new reporting system for vaccination refusers is to be based on the “Elster” program irritates him more than it spreads confidence in the authority. “So far I’ve only known Elster for tax returns,” admits Göbel.
6000 doses of Novavax have been promised, recently only a few came to vaccination appointments
According to the district administrator in the district of Munich, around 90 percent of the staff in the medical field have now been vaccinated. For the remaining ten percent, according to Göbel, things will probably go like this from March 15: First the report is received by the authorities, then there is a hearing and an invitation to clarify, finally a “grace period” and the request to vaccinate. After that, it is important to weigh things up before “picking the box with the various sanctions,” as Goebel puts it. He also points out that “weeks go by” as a result. Protection of the people to be cared for is not achieved in this way. The health department hopes that the availability of the new inactivated vaccine Novavax will further increase the vaccination rate in the facilities. 6000 cans were promised to the district of Munich, they are expected in the first week of March. “Then we will first make an offer to those who are affected by the obligation to vaccinate,” said Göbel.
Overall, vaccinations are currently running very slowly. Some special offers are also hardly ever accepted. Three interested people came to the vaccination day in Grasbrunn, two doses were administered at the children’s vaccination day in Unterföhring and nobody was interested in the vaccination offer in a fast food restaurant in Ismaning. Only a few have picked up a second booster, which is recommended by the Standing Vaccination Committee (Stiko) for people over 70 and people with previous illnesses. According to the district office, 712 in the vaccination centers have received a second refresher so far, 957 in the doctor’s offices. Göbel fears that people will no longer consider infection with Corona to be so dangerous, but remains skeptical himself: “I hope they are right, but I’m not so sure.”