European Union begins mass vaccination against COVID-19

BRUSSELS: The European Union on Sunday officially started rolling out a mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19.

The campaign follows the authorisation for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by the European Commission and European Medicines Agency.

"The first vaccinations against COVID-19 are beginning across the European Union today," European Commission said in a tweet on Sunday

"We have acted in unity throughout this pandemic. Today we begin to turn the page on this chapter, together," it added.

First COVID-19-vaccines arrived in EU member states on Saturday and according to a report in BBC, some countries started administering the jabs on Saturday itself.

"Today, we start turning the page on a difficult year. The #COVID19 vaccine has been delivered to all EU countries. Vaccination will begin tomorrow across the EU," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted on Saturday.

"The #EUvaccinationdays are a touching moment of unity. Vaccination is the lasting way out of the pandemic," she added. She said that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had been delivered to all 27 member states.

More than 3,35,000 COVID-related deaths have been reported from the EU so far. The mass vaccination against COVID-19 comes amid strict lockdown measures in many EU states.

Deliveries of the vaccine will continue in December and on a steady weekly basis during the following months. Distribution of the full 200 million doses is scheduled to be completed by September 2021, the European Commission said.

The European Union has secured contracts for over two billion vaccine doses against COVID-19 from a range of drug companies, said the BBC report. (IANS)

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