Merkel says German vaccine centers will be full by April

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed back Friday against critics of the country's slow COVID-19 vaccine rollout, saying vast vaccination centers set up last year will be full to capacity by April.

In an interview with public broadcaster ZDF, Merkel acknowledged that there was “disappointment” at the slow start, but insisted that it was surprising there even was a vaccine just one year after the virus was first discovered.

“That's a huge achievement that nobody could have expected,” she said. “And then we didn't point out clearly enough that there wouldn't be enough vaccines for everybody at the start."

Germany began vaccinating older people in December and has so far administered some 3.8 million shots. But the vast inoculation centers set up in exhibition halls and sports arenas have seen few patients, as many of the shots were given to people in nursing homes or hospitals.

The government has said that deliveries of the three vaccines already approved will be ramped up in coming weeks, and by Easter all people in the highest priority group will have been offered a shot.

“These centers will be at full capacity at the end of March, April,” said Merkel. “We will struggle to administer all (the vaccines) then, but in the first weeks there's a shortage and some people may have expected differently.”

She rejected claims that the European Union had been stingy when it came to ordering vaccines last year, saying the much faster rollout in Britain and the United States “wasn't a question of money.”

Some of the frustration in Germany has been due to the fact that the first vaccine, made by German company BioNTech and its U.S. partner Pfizer, wasn't authorized in the EU until weeks after it got the green light in Britain and America. A...