Friday marked the final round of 160 Impfbus missions. While the offer remains popular even now, the costs of keeping the service up are too high, and the uncertainties around upcoming demand make vaccine orders difficult to manage.
Around 100 daily vaccinations were injected in the bus. In most cases, people came for the first or second booster. Especially since the new Pfizer vaccines arrived, the vaccination bus saw a distinct uptick in popularity.
Luc Feller, the high commissioner of national protection, explains that the bus was especially popular due to its mobility and proximity compared to the vaccination centres. However, as private practices now administer jabs themselves, visitor numbers have decreased significantly.
Currently, 315 GPs and 60 pharmacies are offering the jab. In addition, the vaccination centres on Limpertsberg and Esch remain open, and additional mobile teams accommodate to groups with specific needs.
In terms of supply, the centres are well-equipped to administer booster jabs with the new Pfizer vaccine. However, the new jabs cannot legally be used as first jabs yet, so medical authorities continue to rely on the ‘older’ vaccines which isn’t always easy.
On the one hand, the conditions of the pharmaceutical concerts are strict, on the other hand, it is difficult to estimate in advance how the situation will develop. Currently, the orders are running for the end of 2023/24.
Luc Feller said that the orders are being managed more cautiously than 12 months ago. The negotiations are still very complex and are not conducted by Luxembourg, but by the European Commission. Often, a minimum quota is introduced, which countries have to buy in order to get any vaccine at all. What also adds to this is that one cannot only buy from one producer, because one does not know whether they will still be producing in a year’s time.
In an answer to a parliamentary question, the Minister of Health explained that vaccines worth 1.4 million euros had to be destroyed. According to this, the question now remains open as to how long the EU will continue to accept the conditions of the pharmaceutical industry.
