Days after the European Union (EU) approved Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine, the first shots were given out to recipients in Germany, Hungary and Slovakia on Saturday. The EU had hoped to rollout the vaccine across 27 member nations on Sunday but the first shipments arrived only in a handful of countries.

In Germany, authorities have already started administering Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine to nursing home residents. "This vaccine is the decisive key to end this pandemic... it is the key to getting our lives back," German Health Minister Jens Spahn told a news conference.

A resident of Agaplesion Bethanien Sophienhaus nursing home in Berlin, Gertrud Haase (101) became one of the first people to receive the life-saving jab in Germany. Edith Kwoizalla (101), a resident of a nursing home in Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt was also one of the first people in Germany to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Vladimir Krcmery (60), an expert on infectious diseases was the first person to be vaccinated in Slovakia.

Similarly, health care workers at the Southern Pest Central Hospital in Budapest become one of the first in Hungary to receive the jab.

Hospitals across EU received their first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Saturday. With the EU's mass vaccination programs set to begin in January, most member nations received just under 10,000 doses.

While France will prioritise the elderly and health care workers, Spanish authorities are set to administer first doses of the vaccine at a nursing home in Guadalajara on Sunday.

In Italy, a country where Covid-19 has claimed more than 71,000 lives, a nurse in Rome's Spallanzani Hospital will be the recipient of the Pfizer vaccine. Similarly, a nurse and a doctor at the Interior Ministry hospital in Warsaw will be administered the vaccine first in Poland.

Other EU nations, including Croatia, have also decided to vaccinate health care workers first. In Bulgaria, however, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov will be the first to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

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https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/story/with-arrival-of-first-batches-of-pfizer-s-covid-vaccine-vaccination-begins-in-germany-hungary-1753609-2020-12-27