The Robert Koch Institute assumes that far more people in Germany are now vaccinated against the coronavirus than previously thought. Accordingly, the vaccination rate for adults could now be around 80 percent.
The vaccinations are considered to be an important lever to end the corona pandemic. The more people are immune to the virus, the faster it will be possible to return to normal. In the end, however, progress was slow in this regard. Compared to other countries such as Malta and Iceland, Germany’s vaccination rate was low, too low, criticized experts. But now it has become known that the number of people vaccinated could be much higher than previously assumed.
It can be assumed that among adults up to 84 percent are vaccinated at least once and up to 80 percent are completely vaccinated, according to a current report by the Robert Koch Institute (deadline October 5). The estimate is based on citizen surveys and registration data. According to reports from the vaccination centers, almost 80 percent of people over the age of 18 have received a first injection, and a good 75 percent have already received the second.
Where does the difference come from?
In the report, which was initially reported by the newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe, the RKI explains that “the vaccination rate reported in the digital vaccination rate monitoring should be understood as a minimum vaccination rate and an underestimation of up to 5 percentage points for the proportion at least once vaccinated or fully vaccinated can be accepted. ” To illustrate: five percentage points in the adult population roughly correspond to 3.5 million people.
The background to this is that in surveys carried out by the RKI, significantly more people state that they have already been vaccinated than are recorded in the statistics. The RKI cites various explanations, including the fact that people who are not very ready to be vaccinated are underrepresented in the surveys. The RKI also states that people with poor knowledge of German cannot take part in the survey. “There is a presumption that language barriers also lead to less use of the COVID-19 vaccination.” In addition, certain vaccinations are not even recorded in the statistics. As early as August, the RKI reported “a certain degree of uncertainty” in the interpretation of vaccination rate data.
Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) told the German Press Agency with reference to the RKI information that the vaccination campaign was even more successful than expected. “That gives us additional security for autumn and winter. With prudence and caution, we want step by step back to freedom and normalcy.” The vaccination rates achieved made it possible to forego certain corona rules outside – especially the wearing of medical protective masks. In indoor areas, access requirements for vaccinated, convalescent and tested people (3G) with the option for 2G only for vaccinated and convalescent people are still important – as is compliance with hygiene rules with distance and masks.
