WARSAW, Poland (PA) – The first shipments of coronavirus vaccines have reached the entire European Union, as authorities prepare to take the first photos of the most vulnerable people in a coordinated effort on Sunday.
The vaccines developed by BioNTech and Pfizer arrived by truck in warehouses on the continent on Friday and early Saturday, after being sent from a production center in Belgium before Christmas.
The launch marks a moment of hope for a region that includes some of the world’s first and most affected hot spots of the virus, including Italy and Spain, and others, such as the Czech Republic, which were spared the worst just to see health care systems close to their breaking points in the fall.
In total, the 27 EU Member States have recorded at least 16 million cases of coronavirus and more than 336,000 deaths.
“It’s here, the good news for Christmas,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Saturday. “Trucks are currently underway across Europe, Germany and its regions to deliver the first vaccine. More deliveries will follow the day after tomorrow. This vaccine is the key to ending this pandemic. “
“It’s the key to recovering our lives,” Spahn said.
The launch is the result of coordination by all 27 Member States, helping the bloc also project a sense of unity in a life-saving logistical complexity mission, following difficulties in negotiating a post-Brexit trade agreement. with Great Britain.
However, the first doses are limited to just under 10,000 doses in most countries, with mass vaccination programs expected to begin only in January.
Each country decides on its own who will receive the first blows – but they all put the most vulnerable first.
The French authorities have said they will give priority to the elderly, based on the high impact on older populations in previous increases in the virus in France. The French health agency will monitor any problems.
Germany, where the pandemic has cost more than 30,000 lives, will begin with people over 80 and vulnerable groups.
Spanish authorities said early Saturday that the first batch of coronavirus vaccine to arrive in the country had arrived in downtown Guadalajara – where the first shots will be administered on Sunday morning at an old people’s home.
A nurse in Rome at Spallanzani Hospital, the main infectious disease unit in the Italian capital, should be the first in the country to receive the vaccine, followed by other medical staff.
In Poland, the first two people to be vaccinated on Sunday will be a nurse and a doctor at the hospital of the Ministry of Interior in Warsaw, the main coronavirus hospital in the capital, followed by medical staff from dozens of other hospitals.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki recently called on the patriotic duty of Poles to be vaccinated – a message to a society in which there is a high degree of hesitation about the vaccine, born of a general distrust of the authorities.
In Bulgaria, where there are also suspicions, the first person to be shot will be Health Minister Kostadin Angelov, who has promised an aggressive campaign to promote the benefits of the shootings.
In Croatia, where the first batch of 9,750 vaccines arrived early on Saturday, a nursing home in Zagreb, the capital, will be the first to receive the vaccine on Sunday morning, according to state-run HRT TV.
HRT TV also reported that authorities will launch a pro-vaccination campaign, which will include celebrities and other public figures receiving the vaccine per room.
“We have been waiting for this for a year now,” Romanian Prime Minister Florin Catu said on Saturday, after the first batch of vaccine arrived at a storage unit run by the military there.
Vaccinations begin because the first cases of a new variant of the virus that has spread in the UK have now been detected in France and Spain. The new option has led several European countries to restrict trade with the UK.
A Frenchman living in England arrived in France on December 19 and tested positive for the new variant on Friday, the French public health agency said in a statement. He has no symptoms and is isolated in his house in the center of Tours.
Meanwhile, the health authorities in the Madrid region said they had confirmed the option to four people, all of whom were in good health. Regional Health Chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero said the new strain arrived when an infected person flew to Madrid airport.
The German pharmaceutical company BioNTech is confident that his coronavirus vaccine works against the new variant in the UK, but further studies are needed to be completely sure.
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Associated Press, Lorne Cook in Brussels, David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, Angela Charlton in Paris, Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, Frances D’Emilio in Rome, Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria , contributed to this report.