Germany backs Covid vaccines for another seven years – order placed for jabs until 2029

The German Cabinet has approved government plans for Covid-19 vaccine orders through 2029 from five companies.

The costs of the plans are predicted to be €2.85bn (£2.39bn) for Covid-19 vaccine makers to have sufficient production capacity available.

German authorities have previously come under heavy criticised for their slow vaccination rollout in comparison to other European countries.

Like many EU nations, they began vaccinating people on 27 December 2020, a month after the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine was given emergency approval in the UK.

But due to supply issues and vaccine hesitancy from the population doses received were initially very low. This time last year, Britain had managed to vaccinate three times as many people as Germany.

Rollout was particularly impeded when German authorities declared it had not been tested rigorously enough.

More to follow...