A 101-year-old woman in a nursing home in East Germany became the country’s first bioentech-Pfizer vaccinator on Saturday, a day before the European Union’s planned vaccination campaign, an ambitious attempt to finally inoculate more than 450 million people in the European Union against coronavirus.
Vaccinations also began in Hungary, where photographs showed health care workers being shot at Budapest’s Southern Pest Central Hospital. Officials in Slovakia also began administering the first dose on Saturday, Reuters reported.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union’s executive arm, released a video ahead of the official rollout on Sunday, calling the campaign a “touching moment of unity”.
According to a survey conducted by Yugov for the German news agency DPA, about two-thirds of all Germans are preparing to be vaccinated against coronavirus, but more than half of respondents said they were concerned about potential side effects.
Doses for Europe are being manufactured at Bioentech’s manufacturing sites in Germany, and Pfizer’s site in the two companies’ purses, and the group’s countries have begun taking their first deliveries.
In Germany, 9,750 doses of the vaccine were received on Saturday in all 16 states. Each state is to send them to regional vaccination centers, and then teams of drivers are to distribute them to nursing homes and care centers for the elderly across the country.
Carsten Fischer, who is responsible for managing the epidemic response in the Harz district of Saxony-Anhalt, said his region’s logistics made it possible to start vaccinations within hours of receiving the dose, and he saw no reason to wait.
Mr Fisher told public broadcaster MDR, “We didn’t want to waste a day, because the stability of the vaccine decreases over time.”
The first inoculation was given to 101-year-old Edith Quizalla, in the city of Halburst; 40 other residents and 11 staff members of the nursing home also received doses, the MDRA reported.
“The day we’re looking forward to is a lot longer,” Tobias Krager, the house’s director, told reporters. “
The second wave of the virus has hit the eastern states of Germany the hardest. More than 1.6 million people have been infected in the country, and more than 29,400 have died, many of them senior citizens, especially those living in nursing homes.
Based on a plan drawn up by leaders, medical advisers and national members, residents of nursing homes and their caregivers, as well as emergency medical staff and individuals aged 80 and over, will receive the first vaccination in Germany. Ethics Council. The country’s health minister, Jens Spaan, said on Saturday that members of the government do not plan to get inoculation from their colleagues.
“We have deliberately said that we will start vaccinating the very fragile.” “If there comes a time when it is understood, ask to boost confidence, ready to vaccinate each of us.”
