Germany does not "intend" to make anti-Covid vaccination compulsory, Angela Merkel said on Tuesday, still banking on the "will" of patients and "publicity" for the vaccines.

 

"I do not think that we can gain confidence by changing what we have said, that is to say no compulsory vaccination," said the German Chancellor at a press conference at the institute of health watch Robert Koch.

"But I think we can gain confidence by advertising the vaccination and also letting as many people as possible in the population (...) become ambassadors for the vaccine from their own experience", a- she added.

"The more we are vaccinated, the more we will be free, the more we will be able to live again", insisted Mrs Merkel.

"I can advertise as chancellor, with deep conviction, for a vaccination," she argued.

"But I also know that sometimes it helps more if it is perhaps the own son who raises the doubts, if it is a colleague who reports his own vaccination experience when in the association or in the municipality, we talks about the pros and cons of vaccinations, "Merkel added.

The German leader advised, to convince the recalcitrant to vaccination, to "discuss all together, in family, at work, in the football club, wherever people know and trust each other".

Asked about the vaccination obligation that will be imposed in France on nursing staff, Merkel was categorical: "We do not intend to follow the path that France has just proposed".

The vaccine obligation against Covid-19 is gaining ground in Europe, as in France where it was decided on Monday for healthcare workers in order to contain the Delta variant. Greece also announced it for caregivers from September 1.

Some 35.4 million people (42.6%) were fully vaccinated in Germany, and 48.6 million (58.5%) received a dose, detailed the Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, regretting that the tendency to "slow down" the rate of injections.

SAISI