Proportion of Germans jabbed with first Covid vaccine dose on par with Americans, German health minister says

Germany’s vaccination campaign has caught such momentum that the proportion of the German population receiving their first dose of a Covid vaccine is now on a similar level as the US, despite the country’s initial slow roll-out.

Jens Spahn, Germany’s Minister of Health, announced Germany’s progress on Wednesday via Twitter, stating that 45.3 million citizens (almost 55% of the population) have received at least one dose of the vaccine, putting Germany’s vaccination campaign proportionally on an equal footing with that of the United States’.

As of June 29, a whopping number of 179,940,202 people in America had received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine – 54.8% of the population.

In a follow up tweet, the minister implored the vaccination campaign to roll-out at the same tempo and that the “vaccination campaign needs staying power…given Delta, it is important that as many as possible get vaccinated! To protect yourself and others.”

Germany’s original vaccination campaign was staunchly criticized earlier this year, as it was estimated that less than one in ten people were inoculated, whereas the US had almost 25% of its population vaccinated on March 20. Germany’s vaccination efforts began to steeply increase at the beginning of April.

Whilst America and Germany may be neck-on-neck for the number of people that have received a first vaccination dose, the latter still has quite a way to go before its number of citizens fully vaccinated can contend with US figures. As of June 29, 47% of America’s population was fully vaccinated, almost a 10% lead over Germany, whose fully vaccinated population stands at around 36.5%.

However, it’s China that has reported administering the most vaccines in the world, having jabbed some 1.2 billion people by June 29.

Germany has approved the following coronavirus-vaccines for domestic use: Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, single-dose Johnson&Johnson and Oxford/AstraZeneca. Meanwhile America’s Food and Drugs Administration has approved all of these vaccines for emergency use bar Oxford/AstraZeneca, with the FDA citing the reasoning at the end of April as wanting to receive more data from trials.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Germany has registered 3,735,382 Covid cases and 91,400 deaths.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!