Germany pushes Covid-19 booster rollout

Berlin, Dec 7 After a slow start to Germany's Covid-19 booster jab campaign, vaccination rates are creeping up again, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases and the Ministry of Health (BMG) have said.

This past weekend alone, 940,000 people were vaccinated, "more over a weekend than ever before," acting Minister of Health Jens Spahn said on Twitter.

This means that more than one in four of the 55 million adults already vaccinated had received the recommended booster for increased protection.

At least 57.4 million people in Germany, or 69 per cent of the population, have already been administered the second Covid-19 shot, the authorities said.

Germany's federal and state governments aim to administer 30 million vaccine doses (first, second and booster) by the end of December.

In her parting message to Germany, outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday pleaded with her unvaccinated compatriots to get the shot.

The "highest possible vaccination rate will help us all as a country to put this pandemic behind us," she said.

According to the German Intensive Care Availability Register (DIVI), the number of Covid-19 patients requiring treatment in ICUs is nearing record levels and stood at 4,905 on Monday.