Friesland district administrator Sven Ambrosi said on Facebook on Tuesday that nurses changed vaccines between March and April this year at the Rofhausen vaccination center in Friesland, northwest Germany.
“Today I had the sad duty of notifying the approximately 8,600 people who may be affected that it cannot be ruled out that they may have received a saline solution instead of their vaccination at the time of their vaccination appointment. For peace of mind We would advise people to get an additional vaccination,” Ambrosi said.
Health officials in Lower Saxony said the nurse was able to replace the vials because she was “responsible for preparing vaccines and preparing syringes during her working hours at the vaccination centre.”
Local authorities and the Lower Saxony State Health Office have called on all Germans who received their COVID-19 vaccines at the Raufhausen center between 5 March and 20 April to come forward and receive another dose.
“In this situation, it is important that catch-up vaccination is offered to all those who are affected… it is the only way to ensure complete vaccination protection. Even if individuals have already been correctly administered twice have been vaccinated,” Mathias Pulz, president of the Lower Saxony State Health Office, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Police found the nurse involved was “motivated to oppose vaccination”, the Lower Saxony government’s coronavirus crisis team, which is overseeing the case, told reporters on Tuesday.
Claudia Schröder said, “The police investigation revealed that the person (involved) was motivated to oppose vaccination … Since she has remained silent with the police, we do not know to what extent she was with her during this period.” was tampered with.” Deputy head of the Lower Saxony coronavirus team.
“We don’t know that many people in particular were affected, and we’re talking about a seven-week period here, so it’s also a large number of people that come to mind,” Schröder said. The saline solution is not considered dangerous to humans.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to get vaccinated, saying that despite progress on the vaccine rollout, Germany is seeing an increase in Covid-19 infections due to the delta variant.
Merkel said she expects “obviously over 70, the better 80%” of the German population to be vaccinated. Health Minister Jens Spahn said in a tweet that 55.1% of Germany’s people have been fully vaccinated.
According to the German health ministry, from September the elderly and immunocompromised people will be eligible for a third, “booster” shot with an mRNA vaccine.
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