Germany betting on booster campaign against Omicron - govt

Reuters
·1 min read
German Health Minister Lauterbach and Lothar Wieler, president of RKI, hold news conference, in Berlin
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BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's health minister Karl Lauterbach said the country was racing to secure more COVID-19 vaccines to speed up its booster campaign that was at the centre of its strategy against the new Omicron variant.

Lauterbach said German authorities were negotiating with Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Portugal to buy more shots.

The country also hoped to receive millions of booster shots adapted to the omicron variant from Biontech/Pfizer in the first quarter of next year.

Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases, said that while there were currently only a few hundred Omicron cases in Germany, it was only a matter of time before it became the main strain.

He said it remained unclear whether Omicron caused more or less severe illness than the Delta variant.

(Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Sarah Marsh)