MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th December, 2020) The European Union member states on Sunday kicked off the bloc-wide immunization against the coronavirus disease with the vaccine developed by the Pfizer and BioNTech pharmaceutical companies.
The campaign is being launched the next day after the EU nations received their first shipments of the vaccine following the European Commission's authorization.
Italy, which was among the hardest-hit European countries, started off the campaign by first vaccinating three employees of the Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome, which treated the first COVID-19 patients back in January.
On the first day of the vaccination campaign, Italy will only immunize medical workers and hospital staff. Further vaccination of the EU population will begin in January.
Domenico Arcuri, the Special Commissioner for the COVID-19 Emergency, called the first vaccinations "symbolic" and compared them to the "rays of light after a long night."
Meanwhile, Spain's first person to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech shot was a 96-year-old resident of a nursing home.
"Very good, thanks," Araceli Rosario Hidalgo Sanchez said after getting the vaccine, as quoted by the TVE broadcaster, adding "let's see if we can get the virus to go away."
The vaccine was then administered to Monica Tapias, the nurse who has worked at the facility for 10 years. She admitted that she was honored to become one of the first ones to be vaccinated in the country.
A 84-year-old woman was the first Austrian to receive the COVID-19 jab.
The campaign was launched at the Medical University of Vienna on Sunday morning. Five people in high-risk groups for COVID-19 and those over 80 years old agreed to be vaccinated first.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Czech Republic kicked off its immunization program by vaccinating its Prime Minister Andrej Babis at the Central Military Hospital in Prague and Health Minister Jan Blatny in the city of Brno. Babis' inoculation was broadcast live on Czech tv.
According to the Czech health authorities, 1.1 million people are expected to be vaccinated in the first quarter of 2021.
Lithuania, like many other countries, has given priority to medical staffers working in COVID-19 wards, emergency departments and intensive care units, according to the Lithuanian Health Ministry.
The Baltic country is expected to receive its second batch of the coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday and the third one in early January.
The vaccination campaign in bordering Poland began at the Interior Ministry's hospital in Warsaw, where a nurse and a physician were the first to receive the shots.
In total, about 300 people are planned to be vaccinated on the first day of immunization in Poland. The authorities expect that by the end of December, about 300,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine will be delivered to Poland, which will allow the vaccination of 150,000 people.
Cyprus has administered its first Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to a doctor working in a nursing home in the city of Limassol.
"We believe in science. We believe in medicine. That is why I was vaccinated first," the doctor said on air the Cyprus Media broadcaster, expressing confidence that the vaccine was safe and urging others to get vaccinated to help end the pandemic faster.
Later in the day, several other Cypriots received the vaccine, after which they all remained under medical supervision.
