Germany’s vaccination process slows slightly, delta variant is gaining strength | abroad

In the week through Sunday, an average of 710,000 vaccines were administered in the country each day. In the week before that, there were 800,500, according to the institute.

Meanwhile, the Delta type of coronavirus was responsible for 59 percent of infections in the week to June 27. The virus variant share nearly doubled compared to the previous week. According to the RKI, the variant is now responsible for two-thirds of all infections. Alpha variant (British) was still responsible for 91 per cent of infections at the end of May, while it was still 33 per cent at the end of June. Other variants are not common in Germany.

Now that many have called for an easing of measures, Christine Falk, president of the German Association of Immunologists, is urging people to wear face masks and abide by other rules. “If we don’t do something,” she said, “this thing will go through the roof.” Falk pointed to evidence in Australia, where the delta variant travels much more easily than the alpha variant.

A report by the RKI also showed that the efficacy of the vaccines is high. So far, around 4,000 people in Germany have contracted Covid-19 despite full vaccination, out of about 975,000 registered Covid patients. In Germany, about 25 million people have been fully vaccinated for more than two weeks since July 4.

The RKI estimates that the vaccine efficacy of all the different vaccines together is about 90 percent. However, the institute remains cautious and states that the data primarily serves to disaggregate data on disease despite vaccination and to provide a preliminary estimate of efficacy.