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Shortly after 9 am on Sunday morning, the first five Austrians were immunized with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at the special clinic for vaccines, travel and tropical medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. Retiree (and great-grandmother) Theresia Hofer was the first Austrian to get vaccinated against the coronavirus on Sunday. Professor Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt, chair of the Austrian vaccination commission, injected the lady and four other patients each with a dose of the first Biontech / Pfizer corona vaccine approved in the EU.
“It doesn’t hurt at all,” Ms. Hofer said. And that she was happy to soon experience a certain degree of normalcy again and to see her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. “This is a historic day,” Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said at the subsequent press conference, especially the scientific achievement of developing and producing a highly effective vaccine in such a short time. “Vaccination is the beginning of victory over the pandemic,” Kurz said, the vaccine is a “game changer.”
10,000 doses of vaccines were delivered to 5,000 Austrians (two doses of vaccines are required in three weeks to be fully effective) over the weekend and they have been vaccinated since Sunday. The vaccination program with the largest deliveries will only expand after the turn of the year. Then the high-risk groups are vaccinated first, that is, people over the age of 80 with a focus on nursing homes. Then seniors and critical infrastructure employees, and only in the third phase all other Austrians, if they will. Kurz and Health Minister Anschober emphasized once again that vaccination is voluntary.
After the first five vaccines in the media, others began in all federal states except Carinthia.
