With the holiday season in mind and the threat omicron variant, politicians are debating whether it is worth creating a vaccine registry.
German politicians on Saturday debated whether to create a vaccine registry for the country.
In comes amid a sharp rise in infection numbers at the beginning of the month and warnings from health officialsabout the threat of another COVID surge. It also comes as politicians raise the prospect of a general vaccine mandate.
Germany approved a vaccine mandate for health workers on December 10, requiring all health workers to show proof of vaccination or show they have recovered from the infection by the middle of March 2022. Whether this be expanded to the general population is yet to be seen.
Politicians debate vaccine registry
Social Democratic Party's (SPD) Secretary General Kevin Künhart told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) that he rejected the idea of collecting people's data for the purposes of creating a registry.
"Even if it is limited COVID vaccination data, I see the fundamental danger that such a step would open the door for further access to data," Künhert said.
Künhert also added that health agencies were already overburdened and he wasn't sure how they would be able to handle the process of administering the database.
Bärbel Bas, president of the German Bundestag, also from the SPD, said she supported the idea of a vaccine registry. She told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that there was very little data vaccine available at the moment, including, for example, about the vaccination status of nurses.
Friedrich Merz, new chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the center-right party of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said a number of questions still had to be answered.
"We don't have a national vaccination register yet, we don't know who is vaccinated and who is not vaccinated," he told ZDF Heute Journal
He also raised questions about the potential for introducing a general vaccine mandate in Germany.
"The question of the enforcement of such a law is, in my view, at least as important as the discussion about the obligation itself. "
Germany relies on data collected by vaccination centers and doctors to provide general information on regional and national vaccine rates, but there is no central database linking individuals to their vaccine status.
Austria plans to use a central register in the implementation of its mandatory vaccination obligation.
Planned protests against COVID rules
Around 8,000 Germans were expected to gather in the northern city of Hamburg to protest COVID rules on Saturday, according to police.
Other cities like Freiburg, Neumark and Hanover are also expecting smaller protests.
Some demonstrators are also taking aim at Germany's ongoing campaign for inoculating children.
Germany's vaccination rate is just under 70%, which is around the EU average. But the rate is lower than in countries like Portugal and Ireland.
rm/aw (dpa, epd)
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December 18, 2021 at 05:20PM
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German politicians debate creation of COVID vaccine registry - DW (English)
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