Ministry Denies: Vaccines for Free Vaccinations Sufficiently Available

The free vaccination program for adults had come to a standstill, the Medical Association criticized over the weekend. Maria Paulke-Korinek, head of the vaccination department in the ministry, said in the Ö1 midday journal: "That is definitely not the case."

"Large Quantities of Vaccines Delivered Nationwide in Austria"

"We have delivered large quantities of vaccines nationwide in Austria. These vaccines are currently at vaccination facilities, exactly where they need to be so that people in Austria can be vaccinated," said the expert. However, it is known "that there is still an unmet demand for vaccines in some cases. At the same time, we see, for example, that 1.4 million influenza vaccines have been delivered, and 810,000 vaccines are documented in the e-vaccination pass. 170,000 shingles vaccines have been delivered, of which just a quarter are documented in the e-vaccination pass." The situation is similar with pneumococci.

The influenza vaccines, for example, were orderable from September 1 and could still be ordered until mid-November. "So I would like to emphasize that colleagues had ten weeks to order vaccines," said Paulke-Korinek. Some institutions had also requested too much.

New Deliveries Announced for Early 2026

For the new free vaccinations since November - pneumococci and shingles - maximum order limits were recently introduced to distribute the vaccines as best as possible. 2,400 doctors were supplied with shingles vaccines and 2,800 with pneumococcal vaccines. That is "already a large number." At the beginning of next year, the next large-scale deliveries of shingles and pneumococcal vaccine doses are expected to arrive.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.