Angela Merkel pledged that Germany's entire population will be offered a Covid-19 vaccine shot by October, as long as drug makers abide by their delivery commitments.
The German chancellor also defended the European Union's comparatively slow distribution of vaccines, lagging behind Israel, the UK and the US.
She held a meeting with German state governors and pharmaceutical industry giants on Tuesday as they sought to speed up the country's vaccine distribution.
At the meeting, Markus Soder, the state premier of Bavaria, called for accelerating approval for the Russian and Chinese vaccines.
Ms Merkel said Covid-19 inoculations could become a regular occurrence in the future and may be necessary “for many years to come”.
"It's similar to the flu vaccine, where you re-vaccinate against the new mutation of the virus every time," she said.
Ms Merkel said the EU had been careful not to rush emergency approval for vaccines – seen elsewhere, including in the UK – to strengthen public confidence.
"It is true that in some areas the pace became slower but there were good reasons for it to be slower".
Ms Merkel said the EU had at times negotiated "for a very long time" to ensure pharmaceutical companies took on enough liability.
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Dozens of ambulances with patients wait outside Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal. EPA -
A woman wearing a face mask walks by a poster asking people to take precautions against the coronavirus, in Lisbon, Portugal. AP Photo -
A nurse checks a patient in the Covid-19 ward of Cascais Hospital, Portugal. Reuters -
Medical personnel work inside a Covid-19 Intensive Care Unit at the Military Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal. At the hospital, hundreds of troops have spent frantic weeks this month rushing to turn every available space into makeshift Covid-19 wards. AP Photo -
Corazzieri, of the Italian military Presidential honour guards, stand guard at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy. AFP -
A firefighter prepares a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine inside the Vacci'Bus, a bus converted into a vaccination center which travels through isolated villages near Reims, France. Reuters -
A medical worker takes nasal swab samples at a test station for Covid-19 in Beziers, France. EPA -
A man wears a face mask as he walks over the Roemerberg square in Frankfurt, Germany. AP Photo -
A view of the deserted check-in area of the International Airport in Duesseldorf, Germany. Concerned about a new and more contagious strain of the coronavirus, the German government plans to ban all passenger flights to Germany. EPA -
A public transport worker distributes free FFP2 protective face masks to commuters at Frankfurt's central railway station in Germany. Bloomberg -
Cleaning worker Anthoula Dimitra Pagouni wears protective gear before entering an ICU at the Sotiria Thoracic Diseases Hospital in Athens, Greece. AP Photo -
A doctor and a nurse examining patients in the Covid-19 unit of the hospital of Doupnitsa, Bulgaria, a municipality with 50,000 inhabitants which is desperately lacking in caregivers. AFP -
A couple looks inside a van parked on Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic, in a protest against the government's new coronavirus measures. EPA
Germany's Health Minister Jens Spahn warned of a tough period coming into April if vaccine shortages persist.
“Money, which we would make available very rapidly, is not the limiting factor,” Mr Spahn told ARD TV. “There will be an appreciable increase in the amount of vaccines only in the second quarter.”
To date, Germany has administered 2.8 doses of Covid vaccine in every 100 people, compared with 9.7 in the US and more than 14 in the UK.
