Munich’s Oktoberfest is offering visitors more than its traditional beer and entertainment this year: doctors are also providing vaccinations against flu and Covid-19, according to Deutsche Welle (DW).
The annual festival officially began on Saturday with the opening of the first beer keg and the customary cry of “O’zapft is!” DW reported. A parallel campaign is promoting “O’piekst is!”—a reference to being vaccinated, or “pricked”—as health workers take vaccines to one of Bavaria’s largest public gatherings.
Christoph Spinner, head of infectiology at Munich’s Rechts der Isar hospital, said the concentration of people in the beer tents creates a heightened risk of infection. “With so many people coming together in such tight spaces in the beer tents, the risk of infection at Oktoberfest is higher,” Spinner told DW.
The festival also coincides with the start of the annual flu season. Spinner warned that fewer than one-third of people recommended to receive a flu vaccination have actually received one, according to the report.
Beatrix Zurek, a health expert with München impft!, a city-led vaccination initiative, said the campaign was intended to make immunization more accessible by placing services where people already gather. “It’s our job to go where people are. And that means: Oktoberfest,” Zurek told DW.
The vaccination offer forms part of a wider weekend roundup of news from Germany published by DW. The supplied report does not provide details on the exact location, operating hours, eligibility requirements or number of doses available at the festival.