EU nations roll out Covid-19 vaccinations, starting with elderly homes, health workers

Health workers, the elderly and politicians got some of the first shots across the bloc to reassure the public that the vaccinations are safe

Hungary and Slovakia the first in the European Union, home to almost 450 million people, to begin inoculating citizens

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A 101-year old resident of a German retirement home is inoculated on December 27, 2020. Photo: dpa

Published: 11:41am, 27 Dec 2020Updated: 10:49pm, 27 Dec 2020

European Union nations kicked off a coordinated effort on Sunday to give Covid-19 vaccinations to the most vulnerable among the bloc’s nearly 450 million people, marking a moment of hope in the continent’s battle against the worst public health crisis in a century.

Health care workers, the elderly and leading politicians got some of the first shots across the 27-nation bloc to reassure the public that the vaccinations are safe and represent the best chance to emerge from the pandemic.

“It didn’t hurt at all,” said Mihaela Anghel, a nurse at the Matei Bals Institute in Bucharest who was the first person to get the vaccine in Romania. “Open your eyes and take the vaccine.”

Vaccine vials are counted at the University of Debrecen in Debrecen, Hungary, on December 26, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE

In Rome, five doctors and nurses wearing white scrubs sat in a semicircle at the Spallanzani infectious diseases hospital to receive their doses.

“The message is one of hope, trust and an invitation to share this choice,” said one of the recipients, Dr Maria Rosaria Capobianchi, who heads the virology laboratory at Spallanzani and was part of the team that isolated the virus in early February. “There is no reason to be concerned.”