Germany and Hungary began applying the first coronavirus vaccines on Saturday, just hours after receiving their first doses, ahead of the European Union’s plans for a coordinated launch in the bloc’s 27 nations.
“Every day we wait is too much,” said Tobias Krueger, the operator of a nursing home where vaccinations began on Saturday in Halberstadt, in northeastern Germany, Saxony-Anhalt.
The first person in the household to be immunized with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was Edith Kwoizalla, 101, the dpa news agency reported.
Krueger said 40 of the 59 residents want the vaccination along with 10 of the 40 workers. He was among the immunized.
In Hungary, several health workers were vaccinated at Central Pest South Hospital in Budapest, while Slovak authorities planned to administer the first doses on Saturday night.
Coronavirus vaccine shipments arrived in the European Union on Friday and early Friday and Saturday after leaving a plant in Belgium before Christmas. Authorities said the first injections would be given to the most vulnerable people by Sunday, as part of a coordinated EU-wide effort.
The launch marks a moment of hope for a region that includes some of the areas where the virus has appeared most strongly in the world, such as Italy and Spain, and others, such as the Czech Republic, which have been spared from harm from the beginning and that until the fall of the boreal the worst blows were seen on their health systems.
impact
In total, the 27 EU Member States have recorded at least 16 million cases of coronavirus and more than 336,000 deaths.
The distribution is the result of coordination by the 27 Member States, which helps the bloc also project a sense of unity in a mission of logistical complexity to save lives after negotiation difficulties and the conclusion of a last-minute trade agreement. post-Brexit with the UK.
“Here’s the good news for Christmas,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Saturday. “At the moment, the trucks are moving through Europe, Germany and their regions, to deliver the first vaccine. More deliveries will follow the day after tomorrow. This vaccine is the key to ending this pandemic. “
“It is the key to recovering our lives,” Spahn said.
However, the first injections are limited to just under 10,000 doses in most countries, and mass vaccination programs will begin by January. Each country will decide who will receive the first vaccines, but all will put the most vulnerable first.
The French authorities have stated that they will give priority to the elderly, based on the high impact among the elderly in previous outbreaks in France. The French health agency will monitor possible problems.
Spanish authorities reported on Saturday that the first shipment of the coronavirus vaccine arrived at a Pfizer warehouse in the city of Guadalajara, in central Spain.
The government said it arrived in a truck carrying the vaccine from Belgium. It is the first part of what the authorities said will be weekly shipments worth an average of 350,000 doses.
The first vaccines will be given on Sunday morning at a nursing home in Guadalajara.
Spain plans to receive more than 4.5 million doses of Pfizer vaccine in the next 12 weeks, enough to inoculate just over 2.2 million people. It will be the first phase of a national vaccination plan.