Pfizer-BioNTech, American Modern, Chinese Sinopharm and Russian Sputnik V vaccines are the ones that have already started to be applied in at least 30 countries around the world. There are three nations in Latin America that were the first.
Costa Rica, Mexico and Chile are not only among the more than 30 countries in the world that have started their vaccination campaigns against COVID-19, but are the first three to apply immunization in Latin America that gives priority to people at high risk of contracting virus and health workers.
The first vaccines come after months of uncertainty, restrictions – which are still ongoing – and strict health protocols that are being implemented to try to contain the world’s epidemic that has left more than 80 million infected and more than 1.7 million dead in 2020.
China, where the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated, was the first country on the planet to start vaccinating those most at risk. Thus, more than one million experimental doses produced in that nation were injected into that territory, an Infobae report said.
In this photo from December 14, 2020, a medical worker shows a bottle of Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine against coronavirus disease. Photography / AFP
China was followed by Russia, which on December 5 began applying Sputnik V, the vaccine developed by the Russian National Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Gamaleya. The workers at risk were the immunized ones.
Meanwhile, on December 8, the United Kingdom began the campaign with the vaccine developed by the US-Germany alliance Pfizer-BioNTech.
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Canada and the United States launched the application on December 14. Then Switzerland on the 23rd and Serbia on the 24th, all with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
It should be noted that the United States and Canada are also the first two countries to authorize the modern American vaccine.
The United Arab Emirates has launched its Chinese dose campaign Sinopharm, which began on December 14 in Abu Dhabi, the capital. Also in the Emirates, Dubai began vaccinating on December 23 with doses of Pfizer-BioNTech.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain began their campaign on December 17, Israel on December 19, Qatar on December 23, Kuwait on December 24. Meanwhile, Oman began its campaign this Sunday. All of these countries initially opted for Pfizer-BioNTech; but Bahrain also injected doses of Sinopharm.
In Latin America, Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica began their campaign on December 24 with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.
Doña Elizabeth Castillo, 91, is the first person in Costa Rica to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Photo @CarlosAlvQ
The first doses of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine arrived over the weekend in the member countries of the European Union, escorted by the security forces.
Germany, Hungary and Slovakia have already vaccinated some people on Saturday. Europe is numerically the most affected region in the world by this pandemic and has already exceeded 25 million cases and 546,000 deaths.
In Germany, Health Minister Jens Spahn expressed displeasure at the vaccination of nursing home residents on Saturday, a day before the official start of the campaign, making the 101-year-old woman the first German to be vaccinated.
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Countries such as Italy and Spain began vaccinating their population against coronavirus on Sunday.
“Do nothing, nothing (…) thank you very much,” said Araceli Hidalgo Sánchez, a 96-year-old woman who became the first Spanish woman to receive the long-awaited injection in a nursing home. from Guadalajara (center).
Around the same time, in Italy, nurse Claudia Alivernini and Maria Rosaria Capobianchi, director of a virology laboratory at Spallanzani Hospital in Rome, were the first to receive the vaccine in the country. In Italy, general vaccination will begin on January 8.
Thousands of kilometers away, in Bucharest, the 26-year-old Romanian nurse Mihaela Anghel, the first to treat a patient with COVID-19 in the country in February, was the first to be vaccinated.
In France, Mauricette, a 78-year-old housewife, was the first to receive the first dose. “I’m delighted, it’s an honor,” said the old woman, who lives in a center in Sevran, on the outskirts of Paris, in tears, adding “It’s hot,” a comment that caused laughter and applause from hospital staff.
Health workers applaud Mauricette, a 78-year-old Frenchwoman, after receiving her first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Rene-Muret Hospital in Sevran, outside Paris, on December 27, 2020. Photo / AFP
In Austria, the first woman inoculated in Vienna, an 84-year-old woman, told the public broadcaster ORF her desire “to see children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren without problems.
In Poland, a nurse was first vaccinated in a social center by the Ministry of Interior in Warsaw. In Croatia, an 81-year-old woman living in the Tresnjevka nursing home in Zagreb said happily: “The vaccine arrived earlier than we expected and now we should all accept it for our friends, our families. and for ourselves ”. While vaccination began in Slovenian nursing homes.
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In Greece, the first to receive the dose was Esfstathia Kampisiuli, a nurse in the intensive care unit of Evangelismos Hospital. “Today is a historic day, it is the beginning of a new stage. I feel lucky to be the first person in Greece to be vaccinated. I think a lot of people are jealous of me today, “he said.
In Bulgaria, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov and Orthodox Bishop Tikhon were the first citizens of the country to be immunized, while Lithuania began with its medical staff.
In Portugal, António Sarmento, director of the Infectious Diseases Service at São João Hospital in Oporto and the first inoculated, expressed confidence that “studies have shown that the reactions are similar to those of other viral vaccines”.
Dr. António Sarmento receives a first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on December 27, 2020 at Sao Joao Hospital in Porto. Photo / AFP
In Sweden, the first dose was given to a 91-year-old woman in a nursing home in Mjölby, a small town between Stockholm and Gothenburg, while a 79-year-old man living in Denmark was assigned to Denmark. an old people’s home in Odense, which humorously said, “Let’s hope it works.”
Belgium will start its vaccination campaign by Monday, as will Luxembourg, while the Netherlands will send the first notifications on 4 January.
In Argentina, the vaccination campaign will begin on Tuesday, with 300,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine from the Russian laboratory Gamelaya. It is the first country in Latin America to authorize this vaccine. Argentina has also approved the Pfizer / BioNTech formula.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused at least 1,758,026 deaths worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the disease in December 2019, according to a balance sheet set by AFP on Sunday from official sources.
Since the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, more than 80,264,840 people have contracted the disease. Of these, at least 50,548,400 have been recovered, according to authorities.
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