A 101-year-old nursing home in Saxony-Anhalt has become one of the first people in Germany to be vaccinated against coronavirus.
BioNTech-Pfizer vaccinations began in Saxony-Anhalt state on Saturday, a day before Germany officially launched the coronavirus vaccination campaign.
In Halberstadt, 101-year-old Edith Kwoizalla was the first resident of the city’s Krueger center for the elderly who received the injection. Forty residents and 10 staff at the facility were reported vaccinated.
“For us, every day counts,” Immo Kramer, manager of a vaccination center in the region, told German broadcaster MDR.
Germany begins rollout of vaccines
On Saturday, tens of thousands of doses of vaccine were given to regional health authorities, which took them to local vaccination centers. German health authorities have said nursing home residents, seniors over 80 and health care workers were the first to receive the vaccine.
“This vaccine is the essential key to tackling the pandemic. It is the key that will allow us to get our lives back on track,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said at a news conference .
“We want to give the vaccine to so many people who no longer have access to the virus, in Germany and in Europe,” he said. and fewer deaths, he said.
“Participants save lives… This vaccine is the surest key to overcoming this pandemic. It ‘s the best way to get our lives on. back, “he said.
Spahn also appealed to young people in German to reduce social contact to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Fighting the virus “will be a long-term task,” he said. But “fall, winter and [next year’s] Christmas should not be marked by this pandemic, “he said.
Spahn said he planned to deliver 1.3 million doses by the end of the year, increasing this number to 700,000 doses per week by the end of January. By the end of March, more than 10 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine are expected.
Defending the EU’s approach to vaccine approval, Spahn said: “We did not want to go it alone nationally with an emergency permit. We wanted and will continue to stand together in the Department. Europe, too, and especially in this crisis. “
According to the latest figures released Saturday by the Robert Koch Institute in Germany (RKI), the country has registered 14,455 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, with an additional 240 deaths. This brings the total number of deaths since the onset of the pandemic to 29,422.
The German health authority said, however, that they had not received all the data from the departments because of the Christmas holidays.
mvb / aw (dpa, AFP)