German hospital data released on Thursday shows that most COVID-19 patients in intensive care are not vaccinated.
Germany’s intensive care association DIVI found that 62% of its ICU patients without known vaccine status had not been immunized against the Coronavirus. Germany has about a quarter of its population without vaccinations.
The report said nearly 10% of ICU patients had only partial vaccinations while 28% had full vaccinations.
Approximately 72,3% of the German population has received at least two vaccinations, while 45.1% have received a booster shot.
Booster shots for children and adolescents aged 12 to 17 were endorsed by Germany’s independent vaccine advisory panel on Thursday.
A committee of experts recommended that children in that age group receive the mRNA shot that Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech offer at least three months after their last vaccination.
As the Omicron variant has been spreading across Germany, the number of cases has steadily increased in recent weeks.
Germany’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, has confirmed 81,417 new infections, and 316 deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours.
On Thursday, Karl Lauterbach, the German health minister, told lawmakers that mandatory vaccination for everyone offers the “fastest and safest way out of the pandemic.”.
