Around Germany, under the watchful eye of police, transporters are fanning out to nursing homes and vaccination centers. Their cargo: The COVID-19 vaccine developed by BioNTech and its American partner, Pfizer.
Ruth Heise was one of the first to receive the vaccine in BrandenburgImage: Fabrizio Bensch/REUTERS
Advertisement
Brandenburg's state health minister, Ursula Nonnemacher, was on hand for the roll-out of the vaccine in the town of Grossräschen.
As a Red Cross worker carried the white polystyrene box containing the precious cargo from the refrigerated truck and past police vehicles into the nursing home, she spoke of a ray of hope on the horizon.
Grossräschen is one of the main COVID-19 clusters in Brandenburg, the federal state surrounding the German capital, Berlin. In this town with a population of about 100,000, the average daily rate of infection is over 500. Of all the German states, only Saxony has a higher incidence.
Nursing homes here have adopted strict precautions. Only close relatives who have tested negative for the virus are allowed to visit residents. But that hasn't stopped the disease from spreading. Therefore it is here that the new vaccine has been eagerly awaited.
One person holding out hope is Ruth Heise, an 87-year-old resident. She is one of the first people in the home to receive the vaccine — and is brought out in a wheelchair to receive the injection in front of a crowd of journalists. She is also one of the few who say they are not afraid of the effects.
Only 12 of the home's 70 residents have applied to receive the jabs on the first day. That's a measure of the challenge facing health authorities. Hubertus Diemer, head of the Red Cross in Brandenburg, says, "It's about trust and convincing people to get vaccinated."
The take-up rate is somewhat higher among staff. About half of those available have applied to receive the vaccine. "There is considerable skepticism," admits the director of the nursing home, Bianka Sebischka-Klaus. One of the problems she identifies is the speed at which developments have taken place. "When we started informing people of the plans, the vaccine had not even been approved."
12 of the home's 70 residents applied to receive the jabs on the first day Image: Fabrizio Bensch/REUTERS
Sebischka-Klaus says it is vital to be patient, to answer people's questions and take their doubts seriously. State Health Minister Ursula Nonnemacher agrees, saying it is important not to put people under pressure and to give them "time to discuss their decisions with their families. Sometimes legal guardians have to give their approval and many relatives have come along to accompany the elderly for their vaccination." The health minister adds that it will take months for enough of the population, an estimated 60%-70%, to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
This estimate applies roughly to the entire country. Most vaccination centers are ready to start work, as are the mobile immunization teams slated to distribute the vaccine to nursing homes. But there haven't been enough deliveries yet.
Each vaccination requires two doses administered 21 days apart. As the Social Democrat (SPD) health spokesman Karl Lauterbach points out, the current plans would immunize just 5% of the population by mid-March 2021. He is calling for an urgent increase in production: "Time is running out. The virus has already mutated. We must vaccinate as many people as possible as soon as possible before the virus develops its own immunity to the vaccine."
One further ray of hope is the expectation that the European Union is on the verge of approving another vaccine, produced by the company "Moderna". It has the advantage of a less demanding cooling chain than the BioNTech vaccine, which has to be stored at extremely low temperatures and quickly becomes ineffective if the chain is broken.
The cooling chain is not the only "major organizational challenge" faced by the health authorities when it comes to distributing the BioNTech vaccine, says the head of Berlin's "Kassenärztliche Vereinigung" doctors' association, Burkhard Ruppert: "It is packed in sets of five doses rather than individual vials. Because it can only be kept for a certain length of time, we will have to organize it carefully so that we do not have to throw out any of the vaccine."
COVID vaccinations begin across Europe
Eleven months after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, EU states have kicked off programs to vaccinate the vulnerable and front-line health care workers.
Image: Ciro De Luca/REUTERS
Millions of initial doses produced
From Sweden to Cyprus, Lithuania to Italy, the push to get people their first shots is now under way, 11 months after the first cases were reported in Europe. EU leaders have dubbed the launch of the drive "V-Day," a moment of unity in a pandemic that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide.
Image: Marijan Murat/dpa/picture alliance
Elderly population a priority
Edith Kwoizalla, aged 101, was one of the first Germans to be vaccinated. She took the first of two doses at a care home in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Saturday, a day before the official launch. German Health Minister Jens Spahn said he expected 1.3 million doses to be delivered by the end of the year, with double that number by the end of January.
Image: Matthias Bein/dpa/picture alliance
Vaccine will also work on variant: BioNTech
The vaccine, developed partly by a German firm, has been snapped up by governments around the world. BioNTech has "scientific confidence" that its coronavirus vaccine will also work on the new variant detected in the UK, company CEO Ugur Sahin told DW.
The proteins on the mutated form of the virus were 99% the same as the prevailing virus, he said.
Image: Danny Lawson/empics/picture alliance
Hungary starts a day early
Hungary began vaccinating health care workers on Saturday, a day ahead of the EU's planned start date. Hungary has recorded over 316,000 cases and more than 9,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Image: Szilard Koszticsak/REUTERS
Polish paramedics vaccinated first
A Warsaw paramedic was one of the first people to receive the vaccine in Poland on Sunday. The first batch of 10,000 doses was transported from Pfizer's facility in Belgium to a warehouse in central Poland a day earlier. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the launch "a great step in fighting the epidemic."
Image: Kacper Pempel/REUTERS
Politicians aim to ease concerns
EU leaders and scientists have gone to great lengths to insist the vaccine is safe. In the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Andrej Babis (seen here) was at the head of the line for his vaccination on Sunday. In Vienna, three women and two men over the age of 80 got the vaccine in the presence of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Image: David W Cerny/REUTERS
'I didn't feel anything': first Swedish patient
Sweden, which has received praise and criticism for its looser handling of the pandemic, is expecting an initial batch of 10,000 shots, along with Norway. Denmark expects to have enough shots to initially vaccinate 40,000 people in care homes, followed by health care staff and those people with a high risk of illness. Iceland will receive 10,000 doses early in January.
Image: Stefan Jerrevång/TT/picture alliance
First doses arrive in Cyprus
An 84-year-old man became the first patient to receive the coronavirus vaccine in Cyprus. While Europe has some of the best-resourced health care systems in the world, the sheer scale of the effort means some countries are calling on retired medics to help. Other countries have loosened rules for who is allowed to give the injections.
Image: Katia Christodoulou/AP/picture alliance
Three-stage program in Austria
A health care worker at the Hospital Favoriten in Vienna was one of the first in line to receive the vaccine. Austria is rolling the vaccine out through a three-stage program, starting with health care workers and people over the age of 65. Austria has recorded over 350,000 cases and more than 5,800 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Image: Lisi Niesner/REUTERS
France: A million vaccinations by February
Mauricette, a 78-year-old French woman, was the first person to receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the Rene-Muret hospital in Sevran, on the outskirts of Paris. France is aiming to vaccinate the first million people by the end of February. The country has been one of the hardest hit in Europe, with over 2.6 million recorded cases and nearly 63,000 deaths.
Image: Thomas Samson/REUTERS
Thumbs up in Italy
Italy began distributing the first batch of 10,000 shots on Sunday at the Niguarda hospital in Milan (seen here). In Rome, a 29-year-old nurse was the first to receive the jab at Rome's Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases. Health workers were first in line, with those over 80 to follow.
Image: Matteo Bazzi/REUTERS
Portugal aims for 10% of the population
The first phase of Portugal's vaccine rollout aims to inoculate 10% of the population, with front-line workers and those over 50 with preexisting conditions taking priority. Here, a medical worker receives the vaccine at Santa Maria hospital in Lisbon.
Image: Pedro Nunes/REUTERS
Ambitious rollout in Spain
Spain is set to receive 350,000 doses from Pfizer-BioNTech per week, with a total of nearly 4.6 million to be delivered over the next three months. The government has said it aims to vaccinate between 15 million and 20 million people in the first half of 2021. Here, a 72-year-old receives the first injection at the Vallecas nursing home in Madrid.
Image: Comunidad de Madrid/REUTERS
13 images1 | 13
Some 60 mobile vaccination teams have been assembled in Berlin. They are slated to visit the capital's nursing homes in the coming weeks, administering 50 vaccines each per day. Six big vaccination centers have also been set up, the first of which started work on Sunday.
Brandenburg, the area surrounding Berlin, is still playing catch-up. The cities of Potsdam and Cottbus each have a vaccination center ready to go but there are plans for a total of eleven by the end of January.
By then, Ruth Heise should be immune to COVID-19. She is due to get her second dose on January 18.
