Germany says 4th COVID vaccine shot may be needed, calls for 'offensive booster campaign'

Germany’s new Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has suggested that a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine would be required for protection against Omicron. According to Daily Mail, the German health minister said that he has ordered 80 million doses of a BioNTech vaccine that targets the new variant which are expected to arrive in the country by May 2022. 

Lauterbach said that he has also ordered four million doses of the newly approved vaccine, Novavax, which is seen comparatively more acceptable to vaccine sceptics. Germany has additionally ordered 11 million doses of the new ‘Valneva’ shot which is still waiting for marketing authorisation, stated the report. He said that Novovax shots will arrive in the country in January.

In the news conference, Lauterbach said, “An offensive booster campaign is our most important building block in the fight against Omicron.”

“The level of protection against severe COVID-19 symptoms after a booster shot is very high. I would estimate it goes well over 90%,” he said. 

Amid the Omicron scare, the German health minister noted that it would not be possible to control the coming waves of COVID-19 infection led by the new variant, without a vaccine mandate. Lauterbach’s remarks for a fourth shot of the COVID-19 vaccine came after Lothar Wieler, president of Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases, suggested that Omicron will be responsible for most Coronavirus infections in Germany within three weeks. 

In the same news conference, RKI chief Lothar Wieler said, "Christmas should not become the spark that starts the Omicron blaze’ and added that people should limit the contacts to an absolute minimum. Welder said, “The trend is crystal-clear. With a doubling time (for cases) of about three days, the new variant could in the next one, two, at the latest three weeks already account for the majority of all infections in our country.”

Germany to introduce COVID-19 restrictions after holidays

It is to note that on Tuesday, German officials agreed to introduce COVID-19 restrictions after the Christmas holidays including limits on private gatherings, shutting down of night clubs & discos, ban spectators at football matches from December 28. As per the report, Germany on Wednesday registered 45,659 new Coronavirus cases and the death toll rose by 510.

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