German health minister Jens Spahn wants top consultation from the sixteen states on the vaccination campaign quickly.
He wants large pharmaceutical companies to sit down to develop the policy further. Spahn fears there may be problems with the amounts of vaccines available until April.
There is tremendous pressure on Spahn in ‘political Berlin’ because the vaccination campaign is delayed due to disappointing quantities of available vaccines. The Social Democrats (SPD) and Liberals (FDP) had already pushed for a special ‘vaccination summit’ from the state ministers.
The sixteen federal states largely determine their own policy in the field of combating the feared virus. Chancellor Merkel and Spahn often try in vain to align them.
Many politicians, including Angela Merkel, also point to the need for more stringent measures such as the closure of borders and airports for fear of coronavirus variants that would be highly contagious.
However, the number of new corona cases per week per 100,000 inhabitants recorded by health authorities fell to less than a hundred on Thursday, the lowest level since October.