The Standing Committee on Vaccination in Germany has now recommended the COVID-19 vaccine form AstraZeneca for all age groups, including people older than 65 years. The recommendation is that for a complete vaccination, two AstraZeneca vaccine doses are needed, with the time between the two vaccinations to be 12 weeks if possible. 

The standing committee had previously recommended the vaccine only for individuals under 65 years. However, now in addition to the AstraZeneca vaccine, vaccines from BioNTech and Pfizer as well as Moderna are officially approved in Germany. After over two months of the start of the coronavirus vaccination program in Germany, more than 2.27 million people have received the second vaccination bringing the country’s vaccination rate to 2.7 per cent. (IANS, March 5, 2021)