Merkel to hold video call with BioNTech founders on Thursday

Berlin (dpa) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel was scheduled to hold a video call on Thursday morning with the founders of pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which together with Pfizer is distributing a coronavirus vaccine around the world.

Merkel was scheduled to speak with Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci and will be joined by health minister Jens Spahn and research minister Anja Karliczek.

In its Wednesday announcement about the call the government did not specify what exactly the participants were planning to speak about, but that they would deliver opening remarks.

Germans may be able to receive a coronavirus vaccination from next week. The European Medical Agency has said it will try to give BioNTech/Pfizer’s vaccine the green light on Monday, eight days earlier than it had originally planned.

The vaccine is already on the market in Britain, the US and Canada – albeit with the help of emergency approvals.

Meanwhile, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s national agency for disease control, said 698 new deaths were reported, according to new national figures from Thursday morning. This is the second highest value since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, 26,923 new infections were recorded. That is more than last Thursday (December 10). At that time, 23,679 new infections were reported. The death toll was 440.

A record number of 952 deaths was recorded on Wednesday. The number of new infections reached a high of 29,875 reported cases on Friday.

The total number of people who died in connection with a coronavirus infection rose to 24,125 as of Thursday.