BIONTECH

The distribution of an initial 200 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech across the European Union will be completed by September, a spokesman for the EU Commission said on Monday.

Leftist opposition leader Alexis Tsipras on Monday accused the government of seeking to turn the country's vaccine rollout into a "publicity stunt."

"A government that tries to stage a publicity stunt around receiving three vaccine boxes looks neither serious nor responsible," he said after receiving a shot of the Covid-19 vaccine at the capital's Evangelismos Hospital.

Europe launched a mass COVID-19 vaccination drive on Sunday with pensioners and medics lining up to get the first shots to see off a pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide.

«Thank God,» 96-year-old Araceli Hidalgo said as she became the first person in Spain to have a vaccine at her care home in Guadalajara, near the capital Madrid.

Namely, thermometers showed on more than a thousand samples that the vaccine may not have been at a sufficiently low temperature during transport.

Ljubljana – Voluntary mass vaccination against Covid-19 started in Slovenia on Sunday, a day after the first 9,750 doses of the vaccine arrived in the country. The first to get vaccinated were elderly at care homes who have not yet been infected, followed by some care home and hospital staff.

Maribor – Statistics show an improvement in the epidemiological situation, but the government is aware a partial relaxation of movement restrictions during the Christmas and New Year holidays will produce some new coronavirus cases, PM Janez Janša said on Sunday. He said it was too early to say whether school would reopen on 4 January.

Europe launched a mass COVID-19 vaccination drive today with pensioners and medics lining up to get the first shots to see off a pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide.

Thank God," 96-year-old Araceli Hidalgo said as she became the first person in Spain to have a vaccine at her care home in Guadalajara, near the capital Madrid.

EU launches a cross-border vaccination programme of unprecedented scale today as part of efforts to end a COVID-19 pandemic that  claimed more than 1.7 million lives around the world.

The region of 450 million people has secured contracts with a range of suppliers for over two billion vaccine doses and has set a goal for all adults to be inoculated during 2021.

A swath of EU nations begin vaccinating their most vulnerable groups on Dec. 27 as a reputedly more contagious coronavirus variant spread internationally and the WHO warned that the current pandemic would not be the last.

German company BioNTech is "very happy" to be able to help Turkey, the firm's Turkish-origin co-founder said on Dec. 26 after a recent procurement deal for novel coronavirus vaccines.