Germany is to rewrite its vaccination protocols to follow Britain’s example as it tries to avoid a third wave by speeding up its jabs rollout. Angela Merkel has agreed to extend the interval between first and second jabs of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to offer shots to as many people as possible. SponsoredOfficials are also expected to allow the use of AstraZeneca on over-65s having previously restricted it to younger people. Everyone will be offered one free test a week from Monday and doctors’ surgeries are to be supplied with vaccines from the end of the month to speed up the programme. Merkel told a news conference that she was aware Germany was in a “precarious phase” because the more virulent British variant

Source: The Times March 05, 2021 00:02 UTC