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Several EU nations have started vaccinating their most vulnerable groups today as a new variant of the coronavirus spreads internationally and the WHO has warned that the current pandemic will not be the last.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis became the first person from his country to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 at the Central Military Hospital in Prague.
“The vaccine that arrived yesterday from the European Union is a hope, a hope that we will return to a normal life,” Babis said before receiving the vaccine.
As of this morning, the Czechs had reported 670,599 cases of coronavirus, while 11,044 people had died.
A 101-year-old woman in a nursing home became the first person in Germany to be vaccinated against the coronavirus yesterday.
Hungary and Slovakia also started their vaccination campaigns yesterday.
Three health workers at the Roma Spallanzani hospital in Italy were inoculated shortly before 7 a.m. today with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a statement from the commissioner for the epidemic Domenico Arcuri.
“The vaccine went very well and it was an exciting historic moment,” 29-year-old nurse Claudia Aliverini told Rainenews 24 state television.
“It is the beginning of the end and I hope to be the first of more than 60 million Italians [to be vaccinated]”.
Italy has reported 70,909 deaths from the disease, the highest in Europe and the fifth highest in the world.
Jytte Margrete Frederiksen, 83, was one of the first Danes to be vaccinated today, as Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen watched via video link from her residence in Marienborg.
The approval and launch of vaccines has raised hopes that 2021 could bring a respite from the pandemic, which has killed more than 1.7 million people since it emerged in China late last year.
However, in a video message ahead of the first International Epidemic Preparedness Day, World Health Organization Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was time to learn the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“History tells us that this will not be the last pandemic, and epidemics are a reality,” said Mr. Tedros.
“Any effort to improve human health is doomed unless it addresses the critical human-animal interface, and the existential threat of climate change that is making our Earth less habitable,” he added.
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Meanwhile, France has not ruled out imposing a third nationwide lockdown if coronavirus cases continue to rise, its health minister said today, as the country prepares for a possible post-Christmas rebound.
“We will never exclude the measures necessary to protect the public,” Olivier Veran told the Journal du Dimanche.
“That does not mean that we have made a decision, but that we are observing the situation hour after hour.”
France has recorded around 15,000 new infections a day, and on Friday confirmed the first case of a new variant of the coronavirus that recently emerged in Britain.
Canada, Spain and Sweden have also confirmed cases of the new strain, which experts fear is more contagious.
A 96-year-old who lives in a residence in central Spain became the first person in the country to get vaccinated today, in an event broadcast on national television.
Araceli Rosario Hidalgo Sánchez smiled and said she felt “nothing” from the shot.
The head of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a video on her Twitter account that the start of the campaign was a “moving moment of unity and a European success story” and said that the EU had ” assured sufficient doses for our entire population of 450 million people. ” .
“Vaccination is the key to ending the pandemic,” added German Health Minister Jens Spahn. “This is a hopeful day for Europe.”
Israel was scheduled to begin its third coronavirus lockdown today, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed optimism that a “world record” vaccination campaign will restore a degree of normalcy in a few weeks.
He hopes to vaccinate a quarter of Israel’s population against the coronavirus within a month to return to normal after the pandemic.
After a sharp spike in detected infections, the Netanyahu government announced three days ago that it would re-enforce the strict measures that had previously helped limit transmission.
Starting at 5 p.m. today, most people will be forced to stay within 1 km of their home.
A key difference in Israel’s third blockade compared to previous versions relates to schools, with more students able to attend classes.
Instead of near-total closures, Israel is keeping schools open for children under the age of six, as well as for grades one through four and teens who finish high school in grades 11 and 12.
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