BERLIN, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) — Germany on Monday launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign for children aged between five and 11 years with pre-existing conditions based on the recommendation of the country’s Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO)

This week, low-dose BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines will be distributed to pediatricians and vaccination centers for administration in all federal states, the Ministry of Health (BMG) said.

German pediatricians expect a high uptake of vaccination in the targeted age group. “This was already the case with the vaccination of adolescents,” Thomas Fischbach, president of the Professional Association of Pediatricians and Adolescents (BVKJ), told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

According to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), the country’s pediatricians have ordered around 800,000 vaccine doses for children for this week, which are to be delivered by Wednesday at the latest.

As of Sunday, almost 58 million people in Germany had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, bringing the country’s vaccination rate to 69.6 percent, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases. Around 24 percent have already received a booster shot.

Booster vaccination has been “inconceivably valuable,” Germany’s federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach told the public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday. Booster shots could break the current Delta wave and avert a surge in cases of the more contagious Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Although Germany is experiencing slight declines in all key transmission parameters (daily infections, seven-day incidence and hospitalization rates), experts have warned that data may be underreported due to the country’s overloaded healthcare system.

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