BERLIN – Chancellor Angela Merkel and german governors planned to hold talks monday with representatives of the pharmaceutical industry on tactics to bolster the country’s slow vaccination campaign.

Monday’s video conference, which will also involve the Executive Committee of the European Union, comes at a time when the bloc’s most populous country is raising its finger on who is to blame for the slow deployment of vaccines.

As of Friday, 1. 85 million people had won a first dose of vaccine in Germany, a country of 83 million more people, and more than 461,000 had a dose at the time. By comparison, Britain, a country of 67 million more people, gave only about nine million people plus a first vaccine.

A series of bad news about delays in vaccine deliveries was only mitigated a little through the announcement Sunday night that AstraZeneca agreed to supply nine million additional doses of its vaccine to the EU in the first quarter, bringing the total to part of what the company originally intended.

Pfizer, which developed the first widely tested and approved coronavirus vaccine in collaboration with German company BioNTech, said it planned to increase global production this year from 1. 3 million doses to 2 billion doses. BioNTech said Monday that up to 75 million more doses would be delivered to the EU at the time of the quarter.

The German government is committed to offering the vaccine to everyone until the end of September. In addition to the frustration of the manufacturers, the EU itself, which ordered the vaccines, stressed; The German federal government, which distributes them to state authorities; and state governments, which are in vaccination rate themselves.

Monday’s assembly is expected to help improve coordination, including by warning Merkel’s workplace of the highest expectations in terms of immediate results, but did not specify which industry representatives would participate.

“We may continue as last week: council leaders criticize governors and state ministers, state ministers criticize federal ministers and the federal government, the federal government criticizes the European Commission, and everyone criticizes manufacturers,” said Health Minister Jens Spahn, himself. , he told ZDF tv on Sunday.

“The virus is the enemy, the adversary and no one else,” he said. “We all have everyday jobs and we are first and foremos say to do better. “

Germany is at its lockout, which has been expiring on 14 February lately. Infection numbers have dropped, but they are still above the government’s goal. Germany recorded more than 57,100 deaths in the pandemic.

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