© Domingos Oliveira / RTL
While the vaccination centre can technically ensure the vaccinations of up to 42,000 people per week, the actual progress is entirely dependent on vaccine deliveries.
Around 200,000 Luxembourg residents have already gone through the procedure of entering the vaccination centre of your choice, presenting personal data, and exiting a booth freshly vaccinated a short while later. In order to speed up the vaccination campaign, a second centre has now been opened in Luxembourg City, in addition to the already operational vaccination centres in Esch-sur-Alzette, Ettelbruck, Mondorf, Luxembourg Airport, and Limpertsberg. The new centre is located inside the Luxexpo building in Kirchberg.
High Commissioner for National Protection Luc Feller explains that the number of vaccines currently available allowed the government to open a sixth vaccination centre. However, Feller also admits that only a small number of deliveries will arrive next week and those have to be used for people receiving their second jabs. The delivery in question was delayed by a week and Feller does not rule out that the newly opened centre will have to close again for a few days next week, simply because there are not enough vaccine doses.
According to Feller, merely reducing the centre's capacities is not an option due to the high logistical effort.
Around 12 vaccinations per hour and line, i.e. booth, can be carried out in the vaccination centres. At the moment, six lines are open at the Luxexpo centre. However, there are 48 lines in total, meaning that the capacity can be increased to 42,000 vaccinations per day. Across the whole country, it is technically possible to have a total of 114 lines open. This means that at full capacity, it would be possible to vaccinate nearly 100,000 people per week. Feller explains that at the moment, the age limit for vaccinations is slowly going down.
Depending on the region, people between 46 and 48 years of age are currently receiving their invitations. In addition, there is the list of those who volunteered to take the AstraZeneca vaccine, which includes around 33,000 people, 19,500 of which have received their invitations so far. And then there is the waiting list for residual doses, which includes around 23,000 people.
About 90,000 people have received their second doses so far. While the number of people in intensive care has remained practically stable at around 30 since late March, the number of people in normal care has substantially decreased.
© Diana Hoffmann
Nevertheless, Feller and his team are already preparing themselves for the next vaccination campaign. According to the latest calculations, it is expected that a third dose of a coronavirus vaccine will become necessary in December 2021. Either as an effective protection against mutations or as a way to strengthen the effects of the original vaccine. Neither Luxembourg, nor any country in the world knows the exact path forward as of right now.
The preparations for a third vaccination phase are already underway and it is expected that GPs will likely play a bigger role.
Feller assures that once enough doses are available, vaccinations will be carried out very quickly.
