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Germany’s health minister is rejecting criticism of the country’s preparations for vaccination amid frustration over the gradual start to the process.

Vaccinations in Germany and the rest of the 27-nation European Union started a week ago. In Germany, a nation of 83 million people, nearly 239,000 vaccinations had been reported to authorities by Sunday.

There has been criticism from opposition figures and some politicians within the governing coalition of various aspects of the process, including what some view as the EU’s overly cautious advance ordering of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine — the only one so far cleared for use in the EU.

Health Minister Jens Spahn told the Rheinische Post newspaper that “we ordered enough” and the problem is that production capacity is initially low. He said it was always clear that supplies would be limited at the beginning.

Spahn said it was also clear that the start would be relatively slow because the first vaccinations are taking place in nursing homes, rather than in special vaccination centers.