European Union nations started today the mass vaccination programme, which aims to bring to an end the pandemic that from March have paralyzed the continent as well as the world. V-day, as it is now symbolically called, started on Sunday morning, and vaccine shots of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine were given to the health care workers and vulnerable categories all around EU. For the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, this was “a touching moment of unity” for the union.
In Italy, the first to receive the shot was Claudia Alivernini, a 29-year-old nurse working at the Spallanzani hospital, which considered the vaccination process an “act of love”: “Getting vaccinated is an act of love and responsibility toward the collective whole,” said Alivernini. In the same line was also the Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza, who considered the coordinated vaccination programme of the EU a sign of hope for Europe. For the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the vaccine could be considered a “game-changer”, adding that the start of the vaccination meant “the beginning of the victory.” Germany, Hungary and Slovakia began the vaccination campaign a day earlier than the one suggested by the European Commission.
Other countries which have started the vaccination process in Europe includes Switzerland and Serbia, both outside the European Union. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, the first European country to start the vaccination process in the 8th of December, has managed so far to give the first shot of the vaccine to more than 600,000 people. The UK is expected to approve in the coming week also the vaccine produced by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. As for Albania, there is still no information about the starting date of the vaccination process, although it is expected to start at the beginning of January.
