Berlin, Mar 5 (IANS): The Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) in Germany updated its reference and now recommended the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca for all age groups, including people older than 65 years, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said.

For a complete vaccination, two AstraZeneca vaccine doses are necessary. According to STIKO, the time between the two vaccinations should be 12 weeks if possible, Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

STIKO previously recommended the vaccine only for people under 65 years and reiterated that the previous recommendation was "completely correct" based on the data available at that time.

In addition to the AstraZeneca vaccine, vaccines from BioNTech and Pfizer as well as Moderna are officially approved in Germany.

More than two months after the start of the coronavirus vaccination program in Germany, over 2.27 million people had received the second vaccination as of Wednesday, bringing the country's vaccination rate to 2.7 per cent, according to the RKI, the federal government agency for disease control and prevention.