WARSAW: The first shipments of coronavirus vaccines have arrived across the European Union as authorities prepared to administer the first shots to the most vulnerable people in a coordinated effort on Sunday.
The vaccines developed by BioNTech and Pfizer arrived by truck in warehouses across the continent on Friday and early Saturday after being sent from a manufacturing center in Belgium before Christmas.
The rollout marks a moment of hope for a region that includes some of the world's earliest and worst-hit virus hot spots, including Italy and Spain, and others, like the Czech Republic, that were spared the worst early on only to see their health care systems near their breaking points in the fall.
Altogether, the 27 EU member states have seen at least 16 million cases of the coronavirus and more than 336,000 deaths.
"It's here, the good news at Christmas," German Health Minister Jens Spahn said at a news conference Saturday.
"At this moment, trucks are underway across Europe, across Germany and its regions, to deliver the first vaccine. More deliveries will follow the day after tomorrow. This vaccine is the decisive key to end this pandemic."
"It is the key to getting our lives back," Spahn said.
The rollout is the result of coordination on the part of all 27 member states, helping the bloc to also project a sense of unity in a lifesaving mission of logistical complexity after difficulties in negotiating a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain.
The first doses, however, are limited to nearly 10,000 doses in most countries, with the mass vaccination programs expected to begin only in January.
Each country is deciding on its own who will get the first shots but they are all making the most vulnerable first in line.
French authorities announced this week that will prioritize the elderly, based on the high impact on older populations in previous virus surges in France.
The French medical safety agency will monitor for eventual problems.
Germany, where the pandemic has cost more than 30,000 lives, will begin with those over 80 and people who take care of vulnerable groups.
Spanish authorities said early Saturday that the first batch of the coronavirus vaccine to reach the country had arrived in the central city of Guadalajara where the first shots will be administered on Sunday morning at a nursing home.
A nurse in Rome at Spallanzani Hospital, the main infectious diseases facility in Italy's capital, should be the first in the country to receive the vaccine, followed by other health personnel.
In Poland, the first two people to be vaccinated on Sunday will be a nurse and a doctor at the Interior Ministry hospital in Warsaw, the main coronavirus hospital in the capital, followed by medical personnel in dozens of other hospitals.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki recently called it the patriotic duty of Poles to get vaccinated a message directed at a society where there is a high degree of vaccine hesitancy born from a general distrust of authorities.
In Bulgaria, where suspicions also run high, the first person to get the shot will be Health Minister Kostadin Angelov, who has promised an aggressive campaign will start soon to promote the benefits of the shots.
In Croatia, where the first batch of 9,750 vaccines arrived early on Saturday, a care home resident in Zagreb, the capital, will be the first to receive the vaccine on Sunday morning, according to state HRT TV.
HRT TV also reported that authorities would launch a pro-vaccination campaign that will include celebrities and other public figures who will get the vaccine on camera.
"We have been waiting for this for a year now," Romanian Prime Minister Florin Catu said on Saturday after the first batch of the vaccine arrived at a military-run storage facility there.
Hungarian doctors and health care workers began getting vaccinated Saturday with one of the continents first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, upsetting the European Union's plans for a coordinated rollout of the first shots across the 27-nation bloc on Sunday.
The first shipments of the vaccine arrived at hospitals across the EU in super-cold containers late Friday and early Saturday after being sent from a manufacturing center in Belgium before Christmas.
It was not immediately clear why Hungarian authorities began their vaccinations a day early.
Authorities in Slovakia also announced that they planned to begin administering their first doses on Saturday evening.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen released a video celebrating the vaccine rollout, calling it "a touching moment of unity."
"Today, we start turning the page on a difficult year. The COVID-19 vaccine has been delivered to all EU countries. Vaccination will begin tomorrow across the EU," she said.
The rollout marks a moment of hope for a region that includes some of the worlds earliest and worst-hit virus hot spots, Italy and Spain, and others like the Czech Republic, which were spared early on only to see their health care systems near their breaking point in the fall.
Altogether, the EU's 27 nations have seen at least 16 million coronavirus infections and more than 336,000 deaths.
The vaccine rollout will help the bloc project a sense of unity in a complex lifesaving mission after it faced a year of difficulties in negotiating a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain.
It also brings a sigh of relief for EU politicians who were frustrated after Britain, Canada and the United States began their vaccination programs earlier this month.
"Its here, the good news at Christmas," German Health Minister Jens Spahn said at a news conference Saturday.
"This vaccine is the decisive key to end this pandemic."
"It is the key to getting our lives back," Spahn said.
The first shipments, however, are limited just under 10,000 doses in most countries, with the mass vaccination programs expected to begin only in January.
Each country is deciding on its own who will get the first shots, but they are all putting the most vulnerable first.
In Hungary, the first shipment of 9,750 doses, enough to vaccinate 4,875 people, since two doses are needed per person, arrived by truck early Saturday and were taken to the South Pest Central Hospital in Budapest.
The government said four other hospitals, two in Budapest and two others in the eastern cities of Debrecen and Nyíregyháza, would also receive vaccines from the initial shipment.
French authorities said they will prioritize the elderly, based on the viruss deadly impact on older people in previous virus surges in France.
The French medical safety agency will monitor for any potential problems.
Germany, where the pandemic has cost more than 30,000 lives, will begin with those over 80 and people who take care of vulnerable groups.
Spanish authorities said the first batch of the vaccine to reach the country had arrived in the central city of Guadalajara, where the first shots will be administered on Sunday morning at a nursing home.
In Italy, which has Europe's worst virus death toll at over 71,000 people, a nurse in Rome at Spallanzani Hospital, the main infectious diseases facility in the capital, will be the first in the country to receive the vaccine, followed by other health personnel.
In Poland, the first two people to be vaccinated on Sunday will be a nurse and a doctor at the Interior Ministry hospital in Warsaw, the main coronavirus hospital in the capital, followed by medical personnel in dozens of other hospitals.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called it the patriotic duty of Poles to get vaccinated, a message directed at a society where there is a high degree of vaccine hesitancy born from a general distrust of authorities.
In Bulgaria, where vaccine hesitancy also runs high, the first person to get the shot will be Health Minister Kostadin Angelov, who has promised an aggressive campaign to promote the benefits of the shots.
In Croatia, where the first batch of 9,750 vaccines arrived early on Saturday, a care home resident in Zagreb, the capital, will be the first to receive the vaccine on Sunday morning, according to state HRT TV.
Authorities also planned to involve celebrities and other public figures in a pro-vaccination campaign.
"We have been waiting for this for a year now," Romanian Prime Minister Florin Catu said on Saturday after the first batch of the vaccine arrived at a military-run storage facility there.
The vaccinations begin as the first cases of a new variant of the virus that has been spreading in the U.K. have now been detected in France and Spain.
The new variant, which British authorities said is much more easily transmitted, has caused European countries, the United States and China to put new restrictions on travel for people from Britain.
A French man living in England arrived in France on Dec.19 and tested positive for the new variant Friday, the French public health agency said.
He has no symptoms and is isolating in his home in the central city of Tours.
Meanwhile, health authorities in the Madrid region said they had confirmed the U.K. variant in four people, all of whom are in good health.
Regional health chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero said the new strain had arrived when an infected person flew into Madrids airport.
Romania, Bulgaria get first batch of vaccines
The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Romania and Bulgaria on Saturday.
The vaccines have been stored at a military-run storage facility ahead of inoculation on Sunday in nine hospitals throughout the country.
Prime Minister Florin Catu describes the arrival of the vaccines as an important moment.
He says that "we have been waiting for this for a year now."
The country of 19 million people has been hit hard by the pandemic which slowed down much needed economic recovery and reform.
A truck with the first 9,750 doses escorted by police cars arrived on Saturday morning at the Center for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases in Bulgaria's Sofia, where the boxes with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were unloaded.
Vaccinations will start on Sunday in a Sofia hospital, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said, adding that he will be the first to take the shot.
Medics working with COVID-19 patients will be vaccinated with priority, as will residents of nursing homes.
The Balkan country has reported a total of 196,915 infections, including 7,073 deaths.
Health authorities fear a new wave of infections after the holiday season.
Orthodox churches across the country remained open, drawing many for Christmas services.