Berlin, Jul 5 (AP) The German government is rejecting calls to fine people who don't show up to vaccination appointments and fail to cancel them beforehand.

The head of the German Red Cross's Berlin branch, Mario Czaja, has suggested fines of 25 to 30 euros (USD 29.65 to USD 35.60) for people who fail to turn up for appointments at vaccination centers. He says the number of such no-shows has increased in recent weeks.

His call has drawn a mixed response. Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Monday that appointments are “valuable” and appealed to people to cancel if they can't keep them. But he said that “the federal government has no plans for fines.”

Health Ministry spokeswoman Parissa Hajebi said that “we want to motivate citizens to get vaccinated and we don't to scare them off and threaten punishment.” She said the ministry didn't have information that no-shows were a widespread phenomenon.

Germany had given 56.5 per cent of its population at least one vaccine shot by Sunday and 38.9% were fully vaccinated. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)