North Rhine-Westphalia: NRW dissolves central vaccine warehouse: no more emergency reserve

Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The central vaccine warehouse of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia will be closed at the end of January.

North Rhine-Westphalia: NRW dissolves central vaccine warehouse: no more emergency reserve

Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The central vaccine warehouse of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia will be closed at the end of January. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the Ministry of Health when asked by dpa. The emergency reserve of corona vaccines is already gone, at the moment there are still 20,000 doses of the MPX vaccine against the so-called monkeypox stored at the secret location.

The central warehouse was opened exactly two years ago, initially to set up the logistics for corona vaccinations in nursing homes and later vaccination centers. When there was a fear of delivery bottlenecks, NRW set up an emergency reserve in the warehouse. At times, several hundred thousand vaccine doses were stored there.

According to the ministry, the contract with the logistics service provider that organized the warehouse has now been terminated. From January there will be no more vaccination centers, the new vaccines will be brought directly to the doctors by the federal government via wholesalers and pharmacies. "The federal government no longer provides for a vaccine emergency reserve for the federal states," said a ministry spokesman.

The operation and logistics around the central warehouse was expensive: According to the Ministry of Health, the costs amounted to 17 million euros in 2022 alone. According to the ministry, the reserves of MPX vaccine doses will in future be kept by an external service provider.