AstraZeneca vaccine still not being given to over-65s in Germany despite being approved last week

The jab was approved by several European countries for over 65s last week

Credit: AP Photo/Kemal Softic

The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is still not available to over-65s in Germany despite being approved last week, it has emerged.

The German health ministry has yet to update its vaccine regulations almost a week after the country’s independent vaccine panel reversed its former advice and ruled the jab was safe for over-65s.

“Although it is now clear AstraZeneca is safe and effective for over-65s, there is still no directive from the health ministry,” Karl Lauterbach, a senior politician from the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD), said.

There is no suggestion the delay is politically motivated. It appears to be a result of the grinding bureaucracy that has helped leave the German vaccine roll-out far behind the UK.

Only 6.2 per cent of Germans have received their first jab so far, compared to more than 30 per cent of Britons.

Vaccine head-to-head Oxford/Astrazeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech

More than 3m people from the most at-risk group — over-80s, frontline health workers and those with serious existing health conditions — are still to be vaccinated.

But the slow pace is not down to a shortage of vaccines. According to the latest figures, Germany has only used 60 per cent of its vaccine stocks so far.

The country initially restricted the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to under-65s because of a lack of data on its effectiveness in older people.

But the German independent vaccine panel reversed that decision last week after data from a Scottish government study showed it was highly effective in older age groups.

A leading German psychiatrist on Wednesday called for anyone accompanying an elderly relative to a vaccination centre to be given the jab as well as an incentive.

“We Germans always want to do everything 100 per cent right and fair, and because of the sheer rhetoric of principles, righteousness and obsession with regulations, we don’t make any progress,” Prof Manfred Spizer told Bild newspaper.

“We’re talking about €25,000 fines for anyone who jumps the queue while over 40 per cent of our vaccine stocks are unused.”