Europe prepares for mass Covid-19 vaccination programs

Countries in Europe are preparing to start the process of mass Covid-19 vaccination, which experts believe could mean the beginning of the end of the pandemic that has been devastating the continent for months, reported EFE-EPA.

Although January seems to be the month in which most countries will have vials of some antidote against the coronavirus, the United Kingdom will this week be the first in the West to try to immunize its population with the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech.

The UK, along with Italy, France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Germany and Belgium, are among the most affected by Covid-19, a disease that to date has caused more than 1.5 million deaths around the world and 67 million infections, according to Johns Hopkins University.

They will also have to overcome the logistical challenges of delivering and administering the vaccines from manufacturing centers.

Belgium has announced that it will be ready to start its vaccination campaign on January 5, and plans to first vaccinate health and care workers, such as nursing home staff, followed by those over 65, in age brackets and starting with the oldest. Vaccines will be voluntary and free of charge.

Its neighbor, the Netherlands, expects to begin its own process on January 4, although several local health organizations have said that that schedule is “premature”. In the first quarter, 1.6 million Dutch people from the most vulnerable groups will be vaccinated.

France, which has suffered from a strong second wave of the pandemic, is entitled to 15 percent of the vaccine purchases made jointly by the European Union; it will have 200 million doses, which will enable it to vaccinate 100 million people, higher than the 67 million French registered citizens.

The government, like those in most European countries, has said that the vaccine will be free and estimates that the campaign, which will begin at the end of this month, will cost the state 1.5 billion euros.

In Portugal, the first phase will affect 950,000 of the 10 million inhabitants in January, as well as people over 50 with high-risk pathologies, users and staff of residences, frontline health workers and other workers in critical services.

In Spain, although the vaccination campaign will also start in January but will be carried out over three phases lasting months. It will be voluntary and free among a population with a high percentage of citizens who, according to surveys, appear reluctant to take the vaccine.

The United Kingdom plans to start the campaign as early as next week, although not with its own vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, which is still pending approval. Instead, it will use one made by its competitors, the American Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, the first batches of which have already been delivered.

The British government has said it is sure that health authorities will have around 800,000 doses of the vaccine next week, out of a total of 40 million ordered to inoculate some 20 million people in the coming months.

In the neighboring Republic of Ireland, like the rest of the European Union, authorities are waiting for approval from EU regulators to begin the year with the vaccination.

The Dublin government has formed a taskforce that will present a vaccination plan on December 11 which will detail the schedule to be followed and the order in which the different population groups will be organized, starting with the most vulnerable.

Once the first vaccines are approved, they will be administered to elderly people in homes and to staff at risk in these homes.

Like other EU members, Italy's Health Minister Roberto Speranza says he is waiting for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to authorize the first coronavirus vaccines to be supplied to the populations at greatest risk.

The government expects the campaign to begin by the end of January, with health and social-health workers being prioritised along with nursing home staff and the elderly.

In Germany, the Health Minister, Jens Spahn, has said that he is counting on vaccinations to start before the end of the year and priority will be given to risk groups - elderly people and those with previous pathologies - as well as people working in hospitals and homes for the elderly and sick people.