Europe launches mass Covid-19 vaccination program as countries race to contain new variant

The Commission has declared December 27, 28 and 29 “EU vaccination days,” which von der Leyen said were “a touching moment of unity.” She added that: “Vaccination is the lasting way out of the pandemic.”

The first people to receive doses of the vaccine were largely elderly or frontline medical workers.

In France a 78-year-old woman named Mauricette was the first to be given the vaccine, according to a tweet by Aurélien Rousseau, the director-general of the Ile-de-France region’s health agency. Mauricette, a former housekeeper, received the vaccine at a public hospital in the greater Paris area.

Professor Maria Rosaria Capobianchi, a virologist at the Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases, was one of the first to be given it. Capobianchi is part of the team that first isolated the virus in Italy.

Also among the first group to be given the jab were a doctor and a nurse.

Dr. Alessandra D’Abramo was working at the institute when Italy’s first two coronavirus patients — a Chinese couple — were hospitalized there on January 30.

“This is a great day because after a long time of great work in the ward, now is a day of hope and I’m so proud of this,” she told CNN shortly after she was given the injection. “The vaccine is approved by the FDA, the EMA and AIFA — the Italian [regulator] — so I think it’s safe and effective,” she added.

A 96-year-old nursing home resident was the first to be given the vaccine in Spain. Araceli Rosario Hidalgo, who was born in 1924, received her dose on Sunday at a care home in Guadalajara, near Madrid.

The second person in the country to receive a vaccine was a staff member at the same home, nursing assistant Mónica Tapias.

The Czech Republic took a different approach — its first dose of the vaccine was administered to the country’s Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, while the second dose was given to war veteran Emilia Řepíková.

While the EU officially launched its vaccination program on Sunday, some countries had made a start on vaccinating people a day earlier — doses were administered on Saturday in both Germany and Slovakia.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is continuing its rolling review of other promising vaccine candidates, including those from AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and from Johnson & Johnson.