German Officials Concerned for Vaxx Status of Ukrainian Refugees

A refugee from eastern Ukraine looks on as she sits in a refugee camp near the Russian cit
DMITRY SEREBRYAKOV/AFP via Getty Images

Officials in one region in Germany have expressed concern regarding the possible low level of coronavirus vaccination among Ukrainian refugees.

German health ministers are to discuss the vaccinated status of Ukrainian refugees expected to arrive in the country, after officials from the nation’s Bavaria region expressed concern regarding the relatively low percentage of Ukraine’s population who are jabbed against the Chinese coronavirus.

Over 75 per cent of the German population has been given a jab to combat the disease opposed to only 35 percent of Ukrainians.

What’s more, according to Die Welt, around 30 percent have received the Chinese Sinovac jab, which has not yet been approved for use by the European Union.

Unlike a sizable number of other countries in Europe — such as Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands — who have been rapidly pulling back on various COVID measures in place within their respective countries, Germany has been very slow to return freedoms to its population.

People fleeing war-torn Ukraine get food, clothing and toiletries at Hauptbahnhof main railway station on March 2, 2022 in Berlin, Germany. (Hannibal Hanschke/Getty Images)

Despite the likes of England having scrapped all of its coronavirus restrictions last week, Germany has remained relatively firm in maintaining its own lockdown rules, with only a preliminary loosening planned for this coming Friday, with a more substantial one pencilled in for March 20.

The country’s leaders are also still pushing for mandatory vaccination, with the nation’s health minister suggesting that life will not return to normal without a forced vaccination regime.

“We’re not getting any further by pushing the problem away from us,” Minister Karl Lauterbach said. “We won’t come back to the life we ​​lived and valued if we don’t turn things around now.”

Around 50,000 Ukrainian refugees are expected to arrive in Bavaria — which is the largest in the country by land area — though, according to a Passauer Neue Presse report, the region’s interior minister admitted that he would not mind if less turned up.

“If it should be less, it certainly won’t do any harm,” the minister said, noting that the state nevetheless had to be prepared for the arrival of the full amount.

Germany has become infamous for its extreme hospitability towards would-be migrants, to the point that it appears that the nation’s attitude has been weaponised by international rivals.

During a phone call with the country’s then-Chancellor, Angela Merkel, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko — a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — appeared to try and strong-arm the German leader into taking migrants from within his country.

People offer rooms for Ukrainian refugees as people arrive on a train from Ukraines border at Berlins main train station on March 2, 2022. (TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images)

“German cities would be glad to welcome these refugees,” Lukashenko claims to have told Merkel. “Taking 2,000 is nothing. It is not even a problem.”

“If you don’t, it will be a catastrophe,” the dictator allegedly went on to threaten. “People will freeze. People will start dying.”

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