EU countries, including France, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Spain, launched major inoculations on Sunday, with many states starting with health workers.
Vaccinations in the block begin after approval from BioNTech-Pfizer injection by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The first vaccines arrived across the EU late Friday and early Saturday. Each member country can lead the implementation of the dispensation, and three member states – Germany, Hungary and Slovakia – began vaccination one day early Saturday.
Just hours after the vaccines reached Slovakia, authorities began administering their first doses on Saturday afternoon. Frontline medical staff in hospitals treating COVID-19 patients were among the first to receive the vaccine. President Zuzana Caputova expects to receive the vaccine on Sunday.
Slovakia is the second country in the EU after Hungary launched the vaccination campaign just after the first doses were reached, hampering plans for Sunday’s coordinated distribution of the first COVID shots across the European Union 27- nation.
Designing a sense of unity
Germany said mobile teams were on track to deliver the vaccine to care homes for the elderly, who are initially receiving the vaccine on Sunday. Beyond hospitals and care homes, sports halls and conference centers evacuated with lockout measures will become centers for epidemics.
Germany, with a population of 83 million, has built more than 400 vaccination centers to carry out the inoculations, including centers such as the former Tegel and Tempelhof airports in Berlin and the Hamburg trade fair hall .
DW’s Nina Haase said German health authorities received their first doses on Saturday, with each of the country’s 16 states receiving around 10,000 original doses.
“That’s not close enough to cover even the elderly. There is a great sense of urgency,” she said.
Vaccines will be free and available to everyone from mid-2021, when the jobs for the priority groups are expected to be ready. It is not a duty to be included.
Start in France, Spain and Italy
France, which has recorded about 15,000 new infections every day, received its first batch of the two-dose vaccine on Saturday. The French authorities said they would start giving the vaccine in the larger Paris area and in the Burgundy-Franche-Comte region.
In Italy, meanwhile, solar-powered temporary health care tents are set to appear in city squares across the country, designed to resemble five-petal primrose flowers, a symbol of spring.
DW journalist Rome, Seema Gupta, said the Italian government has ordered 200 million doses that will be initially delivered at 21 centers across the country.
“Finally you are going to see a campaign on why it is important to have this vaccine, which is free and non-compulsory, but highly encouraged,” she said.
In Spain, air doses are delivered to island areas and to the North African corners of Ceuta and Melilla. And Portugal is setting up separate cold storage units for their Atlantic islands of Azores and Madeira.
The rotation of the BioNTech-Pfizer shot presents a tough challenge, as the vaccine uses new mRNA technology and must be stored at ultra-low temperatures around -80 degrees Celsius (-112 ° F). However, the on-going release is helping the EU project a sense of unity in a complex life-saving mission after the bloc faced challenges controlling the spread of the virus.
In total, EU countries have recorded at least 16 million coronavirus infections to date and more than 336,000 deaths – large numbers that experts agree are still undermining the true tolls of the whole disease. -dissolved due to missed cases and limited testing.
Approval for an Oxford injection soon?
The United Kingdom, the first country in the world to approve the BioNTech-Pfizer injection, will also roll out Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine, developed by British-Swiss pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, from January 4, according to plans drawn up by ministers, the Telegraph Sunday recitation.
The government hopes to give the first dose of Oxford vaccine or Pfizer vaccine to 2 million people over the next two weeks, the newspaper said.
Although the paper said the Oxford vaccine is expected to be approved by medical regulators within days, the British Department of Health said on Sunday that the regulator of MHRA (Medicines and Care Products Regulatory Agency) needs time Health) to conduct their review of the data. of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
“We now need to give the MHRA time to do their important work and we must wait for her advice,” said a spokesman for the Department of Health, commenting on the Telegraph Sunday report.
Argentina bet on Sputnik
Outside Europe, Argentina said it would begin vaccinating its citizens against coronavirus on Tuesday using the recently delivered Russian Sputnik V vaccine, after it received permission from health authorities to use it. emergency.
Argentine President Alberto Fernández and regional governors said health workers would receive their vaccines within 72 hours. Around 300,000 doses arrived in Argentina on Thursday, with subsequent shipments expected in early 2021.
Some Western scientists have raised concerns about Russia giving control of its vaccines and launching major vaccines before full tests were carried out to complete the safety and efficacy of Sputnik V. Russia says the criticism is unfounded.
jf, sri / mm (Reuters, AP, AFP)