European Union nations have begun mass vaccinations in an effort to put an end to the global pandemic. Outside the EU, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Serbia have already started inoculations.
Germany has set up more than 400 vaccination centers to carry out the inoculationsImage: Fabrizio Bensch/REUTERS
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European Union member states, including France, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Spain have launched mass inoculation programs, with many countries starting with health care workers.
Vaccinations in the bloc began on Sunday following approval of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine by the European Medicines Agency shortly before Christmas. The first shipments of the two-dose vaccine arrived across the EU late Friday and early Saturday. Each member nation has been tasked with taking the lead on how to implement the rollout, with three member states — Germany, Hungary and Slovakia — starting vaccinations a day early on Saturday.
Just hours after the vaccines arrived in Slovakia, authorities began administering their first doses on Saturday evening. Front-line medical staff in hospitals treating COVID-19 patients were among the first to get the vaccine. President Zuzana Caputova was scheduled to get vaccinated on Sunday.
Slovakia was the second EU country after Hungary to start the vaccination campaign immediately after the arrival of the first doses, upsetting plans for a coordinated rollout on Sunday of the first COVID shots across the 27-nation European Union.
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
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Projecting a sense of unity
In Germany, mobile teams delivered the vaccine to care homes for the elderly, who were first in line to receive the vaccine on Sunday. Beyond hospitals and care homes, sports halls and convention centers emptied by lockdown measures will become venues for mass inoculations.
Germany, with a population of 83 million, has built up more than 400 vaccination centers to carry out the inoculations, including in venues like Berlin's former Tegel and Tempelhof airports and Hamburg's trade fair hall.
DW corespondent Nina Haase said German health authorities received their first doses on Saturday, with each of the country's 16 states receiving some 10,000 initial doses.
"That is not nearly enough to cover even the elderly. There is a big sense of urgency," she said.
Vaccinations will be free and available to everyone from mid-2021, when the jabs for the priority groups are expected to have finished. There is no obligation to be inoculated.
Andrew Ullmann, a lawmaker with Germany's pro-business Free Democratic Party, said the vaccine rollout is "a major step in humankind."
"I think it's a very touching moment since for the first time in human history, we are combating a pandemic, an acute pandemic, with a newly evaluated and approved vaccine," he told DW.
DW's Kate Martyr visited a care home with some 1,100 elderly residents in the western city of Cologne to see the first patients receive their vaccine.
Vaccines may not have been kept cold enough
Germany's vaccination campaign, however, faced delays in several cities on Sunday after temperature trackers showed that about 1,000 of the BioNTech-Pfizer shots may not have been kept cold enough during transit.
"When reading the temperature loggers that were enclosed in the cool boxes, doubts arose about the compliance with the cold chain requirements," the district of Lichtenfels in Bavaria said in a statement.
Medical workers found that the temperature in one vaccine transport cool box had risen to 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit), a spokesman for Lichtenfels said, above the maximum of 8 degrees required by BioNTech-Pfizer.
BioNtech said it was responsible for the shipment to the 25 German distribution centers and that Germany's federal states and local authorities were responsible for the shipment to the vaccination centers and the mobile vaccination teams.
"It is up to them how to proceed," said a BioNTech spokesperson.
Kickoff in France, Spain and Italy
France, which has been registering around 15,000 new infections per day in its second wave of the pandemic, received its first shipment of the vaccine on Saturday. French authorities said they would first start administering the vaccine in the greater Paris area and in the Burgundy-Franche-Comte region.
In Italy, meanwhile, temporary solar-powered health care pavilions are set to spring up in town squares around the country, designed to look like five-petal primrose flowers, a symbol of spring.
DW Rome correspondent Seema Gupta said the Italian government has ordered 200 million doses that will be administered initially at 21 centers across the country.
"Eventually you are going to see a campaign about why it's important to do this vaccine, which is free and non-mandatory, but very much encouraged," she said.
In Spain, doses are being delivered by air to island territories and the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Portugal is establishing separate cold storage units for its Atlantic archipelagos of Azores and Madeira.
The distribution of the BioNTech-Pfizer shot presents a challenge for member states, as the vaccine uses new mRNA technology and must be stored at ultra-low temperatures of around -80 degrees Celsius (-112°F). EU nations have recorded at least 16 million coronavirus infections so far and more than 336,000 deaths — huge numbers that experts agree still understate the true toll of the pandemic due to missed cases and limited testing.
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Approval for Oxford jab soon?
The United Kingdom, the first country worldwide to approve the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, is also expected to roll out a vaccine developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca from January 4, according to plans being drawn up by ministers.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that the government hopes to give the first dose of either the Oxford vaccine or the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine to 2 million people over the next two weeks.
While the Oxford vaccine is expected to be approved by medical regulators within days, Britain's Department of Health said Sunday that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) must be given time to carry out its review of the data of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
"We must now give the MHRA the time to carry out its important work and we must wait for its advice," said a Health Department spokeswoman said, commenting on the Telegraph report.
Countries start rolling out coronavirus vaccine
Several countries have launched their COVID-19 vaccination programs, boosting hopes that it may be the beginning of the end of the pandemic.
Image: Ariel Schalit/AP/picture alliance
Mexico
Mexico's military is in charge of running the vaccination program, which began on Tuesday. The country will be administering 125,000 doses of the newly approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. For now, only medical staff in two out of Mexico's 32 states — Mexico city and the northern state of Coahuila — will be vaccinated.
Image: Claudio Cruz/APF/Getty Images
Israel
Israel kicked off its vaccination drive on Sunday. On day 1, health workers, the PM and the defense forces received the vaccine, while those above 60 started receiving the vaccine from Monday. Israel aims to vaccinate at least 2 million people by January.
Image: Ariel Schalit/AP/picture alliance
United States
The US has approved two vaccines in order to speed up the roll out of the vaccine to its population. President-elect Joe Biden received his first dose of the vaccine on Monday. The politician emphasized the safety of the vaccine, and even praised President Donald Trump, saying the current administration "deserves some credit" for getting the vaccine distribution "off the ground."
Image: Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo/picture alliance
United Kingdom
The UK started its vaccination program earlier this month. The first 800,000 doses of the vaccine will be given to people over 80 who are hospitalized, along with healthcare workers. There is speculation on whether the vaccine will be effective against the new strain of the coronavirus, but BioNTech, the German partner of Pfizer in the coronavirus vaccine, has said that its vaccine could work.
Image: Danny Lawson/empics/picture alliance
Canada
Canada's health regulator gave an emergency approval to Pfizer's vaccine earlier this month. The country will receive up to 249,000 doses of the vaccine in December. The country has started rolling out the vaccine to its healthcare workers.
Image: Adrian Wyld/REUTERS
Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a mass inoculation campaign this month. Doctors, teachers and social workers are first in line to receive Russia's Sputnik V vaccine. Meanwhile, clinics in Moscow have also begun to offer the vaccine.
Outside Europe, Argentina said it will begin vaccinating its citizens against coronavirus on Tuesday using the recently delivered Russian Sputnik V vaccine, following its approval by health authorities for emergency use.
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez and provincial governors said health personnel would receive their vaccines in less than 72 hours. Around 300,000 doses arrived in Argentina on Thursday, and subsequent shipments are expected early in 2021.
Some Western scientists have raised concerns about Russia giving the regulatory go-ahead for its vaccines and launching large-scale vaccinations before completing full trials to test Sputnik V's safety and efficacy. Russian authorities have said the criticism is unfounded.
