(CDE/Reuters) – Malta received its first shipment of Coronavirus vaccine. A Cessna plane carrying around 10,000 doses of the vaccine, which is manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, landed at Malta International Airport at 10.40am.
The jab left Amsterdam on board the Cessna Aircraft flight AHO318C.
Only 55 people will be given the vaccine on Sunday. Healthcare staff and those aged 85 will then receive the jab before it is rolled out further.
The first dose of the vaccine will give a person 52 per cent immunity, which rises to full immunity on the second dose.
On the days leading to Christmas, local firm Vivian Corporation was distributing PiC syringes which will be used to deliver the vaccine in the coming days.
Germany’s BioNTech said it was preparing to send 12.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine it has developed with U.S. drugs giant Pfizer to European Union countries by the end of the year.
EU member countries including Germany, France, Austria and Italy plan to start vaccinations from Dec. 27 as Europe tries to catch up with the United States and Britain, where inoculations began earlier this month.
The vaccine won regulatory clearance for use on people over 16 years old from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday.
The regulator in Switzerland, which is not an EU member, approved the vaccine at the weekend.
Following are plans for the European rollout:
GERMANY
An initial 150,000 or so doses are due to be delivered on Dec. 26 to allow authorities to start the first vaccinations in elderly care homes the following day, with further doses due later in the week.
More than two million doses, enough to vaccinate more than one million people under the two-dose regimen, will be delivered by the end of the first week of January.
ITALY – UPDATE
The first 9,750 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived at the Spallanzani hospital in Rome on Saturday (December 26).
The refrigerated truck, coming from Belgium, was escorted by Carabinieri Military police since it entered Italy from Brennero Pass on Friday (December 25).
Vaccinations are set to begin on Dec. 27 and subsequent Pfizer doses will be delivered directly to 300 administration sites across Italy.
FRANCE
France plans to start its vaccination programme on Dec. 27, prioritising the most vulnerable members of the population, such as the elderly.
Formal approval from the French medical regulator, which is needed for roll-out to start, was issued on Dec. 24.
SPAIN
The first batch of shots will be delivered to the city of Guadalajara in central Spain, where vaccination will begin on Dec. 27. The country will receive 350,000 doses per week of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine starting Dec. 26.
PORTUGAL
The first shots on Dec. 27 will be given to frontline health workers from five big hospitals: two in Lisbon, two in Porto and one in Coimbra. About 80,000 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses will be delivered by year-end.
AUSTRIA/SPAIN/BULGARIA/ROMANIA/CZECH REPUBLIC/SLOVAKIA
Austria, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania and Czech Republic have announced plans to start to vaccinate citizens two days after Christmas.
Romania expects an initial 10,000 doses to be distributed across 10 hospitals. Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria expect similar volumes for their initial deliveries.
AUSTRIA UPDATE
The first Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination doses against Covid-19 arrived in Austria on Friday night. The delivery came from Belgium via Germany, the authorities announced. The approximately 10,000 doses were brought from the border crossing in Suben in Upper Austria to a warehouse in Vienna under police escort.
HUNGARY UPDATE
Hungary started vaccinating healthcare workers against the coronavirus with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday, a day earlier than in most other countries in the European Union.
Hungary received a first shipment of coronavirus vaccines Saturday morning that will be enough to inoculate 4,875 people, state news agency MTI reported. The vaccines have been shipped to Budapest with police escort.
“We have started the inoculations among healthcare workers according to a plan defined earlier,” a government spokesman said in a reply to Reuters questions.
The first vaccinations are being delivered at Budapest’s main COVID centre, the Del-Pest Central Hospital, and in the afternoon at another main Budapest hospital as well, MTI reported.
Earlier this month, the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to roll out the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech.
As of Saturday, Hungary had reported 315,362 COVID-19 cases with 8,951 deaths. More than 6,000 people are still in hospital with COVID-19, straining the healthcare system.
BELGIUM/LUXEMBOURG
Vaccinations are expected to begin on Dec. 28.
NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands will begin inoculations on Jan. 8, health minister Hugo de Jonge said last week.
“We have opted for a planning that is careful, safe and responsible,” De Jonge said in a letter to parliament.
NORWAY/SWEDEN/DENMARK/ICELAND
Sweden and Norway are each expecting an initial batch of 10,000 shots. Norway will focus on deploying nursing homes.
Denmark expects to have enough shots initially to vaccinate the 40,000 people living in nursing homes and then priority will be given to those with high risk of illness or healthcare staff.
Iceland will receive 10,000 doses around New Year.
SERBIA
Prime Minister Ana Brnabic received Serbia’s first COVID-19 vaccine shot on Dec. 24. Some 4,875 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccines were flown in on Dec. 22.
(Reporting by Reuters buros; Compiled by Keith Weir and Josephine Mason Editing by Mark Heinrich and Mark Potter)
