Germany picks up pace to give a million jabs in a day

GERMANY set a new European record for coronavirus vaccinations by giving more than one million jabs in a day, figures revealed.

German doctors gave out 1,088,952 jabs on Wednesday, eclipsing the previous European record of 874,000 set by Britain on March 20.

It was also the first time Germany had vaccinated more than 1 per cent of its population in a day.

Only the United States, China and India, with their much larger populations, have given more coronavirus jabs in 24 hours.

“This shows how much speed we’ve gained,” Jens Spahn, the German health minister, said.

The country’s vaccine rollout has accelerated dramatically in recent weeks with more inoculations being given this month than in the entire first quarter of the year.

Germany has now given a first jab to 25.9 per cent of its population, or 21.5 million people.

At the start of the month the figure was still under 12 per cent.

Some 6.2 million Germans, or 7.5 per cent of the population, are fully vaccinated.

The acceleration is partly down to larger deliveries of vaccines from the manufacturers, but the rollout has also sped up since GPS were brought on board this month.

Increasingly large deliveries are scheduled for the next two months, including 39.3 million doses from Pfizer alone.

Germany expects to vaccinate all over-60s and those at risk from existing conditions by the end of May.

Angela Merkel’s government has said it will stop vaccinating by age group once all over-60s have been given the jab and throw it open to all adults by early June.

The official government target is still to offer every adult a first jab by Sept 21, but Germany is now far ahead of schedule to achieve that.

A third wave of the pandemic seems to have peaked in Germany as vaccinations help turn the tide. But while the caseload appears to be stagnating, Mr Spahn said they would need to see a sustained fall to ease the lockdown.