About 20,000 German citizens will be able to get vaccinated as the country records an explosion in infections
The German federal government sent an initial shipment of coronavirus vaccines from German laboratory BioNTech and US pharmaceutical company Pfizer to Beijing on Wednesday to immunize China’s more than 20,000 residents. The move comes as the Asian country appears to have abandoned its ‘covid zero’ policy and eased much of its restrictions, allowing the virus to spread. The official spokesman for the Berlin government, Steffen Hebesteit, announced that the first shipment will reach its destination before the end of the day. The German ambassador in Beijing, Patricia Flo, stressed that vaccinations of German citizens will begin as soon as possible.
However, German medical experts doubt whether the vaccination will take place in time. The majority of Germans in China live in and around Shanghai or in the country’s capital, and the virus is spreading rapidly in both cities, following Beijing’s change of strategy to contain the disease announced on Dec. 7. It is estimated that several million people are infected in the capital alone, and the Chinese health authorities themselves estimate that each carrier of the virus infects 16 others. Such a staggering development had not been recorded in either Europe or the United States at the height of the pandemic.
One of the reasons, according to German experts, is that the Chinese vaccine, despite being administered even in three doses, does not produce enough antibodies to fight the virulent omicron variant. The infections happen as if one has not been vaccinated at all. Meanwhile, the German embassy in Beijing has already sent a message to all German residents of China to offer them a free vaccination soon. They can be immunized in five major cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Chengdu and Guangzhou. The coronavirus is spreading rapidly in all of them. The offer is for German citizens only and specifies that “relatives of other nationalities will not be included”.
The information contradicts the results of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s recent visit to Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Subsequently, an agreement was announced in Berlin between the two governments so that, thanks to the German initiative, all Europeans residing in that country could be vaccinated. Vaccines would be provided by Berlin. Scholz noted after that visit that Beijing had authorized the vaccination of all “expats” with German help. Which made Americans or Japanese also show interest in participating in the campaign initiated by the German government. German government sources stressed that Berlin has been urging Beijing in recent weeks with its offer to set up a BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine factory in China to help immunize the country’s population, although the response has so far been was negative.
The temporary permission to send German-produced vaccines to China came at the same time that Berlin authorized Beijing to send doses of its Sinovac product to Germany to immunize its nationals in this country. “With this authorization, we want to ensure that Chinese citizens can be protected here by their own vaccine,” said German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach on December 7 when announcing the bilateral agreement reached. Of course, the Chinese vaccine is only administered to nationals of that country living in Germany and only at the Chinese embassy and consulates.
Source: La Verdad
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