Vaccination against Covid-19 will begin in the EU on December 27, 28 and 29, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Thursday in a tweet.
It's Europe's moment.
On 27, 28 and 29 December vaccination will start across the EU.
We protect our citizens together.
We are # StrongerTogether # EUvaccinationdays pic.twitter.com/6VxDumysBL
- Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 17, 2020
A message posted, for the anecdote, just after the one wishing a "speedy recovery" to Emmanuel Macron diagnosed positive this Thursday.
Under pressure from Germany, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Tuesday that it would look at the fate of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 21 - a week earlier than expected.
The Commission had specified that it would then give its authorization within two days of this green light.
"In total, we bought more doses than necessary for everyone in Europe", recalled Wednesday Ursula von der Leyen, contracts having been signed with various laboratories in order to constitute "a diversified portfolio" vaccines in development.
“In the same way that we went through this pandemic in unity, let us undertake together and all united the eradication of this horrible virus”, urged the head of the European executive.
1.6 million doses in France in February
In France, Jean Castex unveiled the government's vaccine strategy on Wednesday, promising "transparency" to generate "confidence".
The presentations by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, to the deputies were followed by a debate without a vote, before the same exercise scheduled for Thursday morning before the Senate, with a right-wing majority.
Aware that "must not miss this shift" of vaccines, after having experienced boondoggles on tests and masks, Jean Castex explained to condition the kick-off of the vaccine campaign to the marketing authorization of the European Medicines Agency, "expected for December 21", and an opinion from the High Authority for Health delivered "in the wake".
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France will be delivered "by the end of the year" of around 1.16 million doses of vaccine against Covid-19, said the Prime Minister, then "677,000 additional doses around January 5-6 And "about 1.6 million doses in February".
Generalization in late spring
The "first phase will be spread over a period of six to eight weeks, to take into account the period of 21 days" between the two injections necessary for vaccination, added the Prime Minister.
It concerns "the oldest people accommodated in establishments such as nursing homes", ie approximately one million French people.
A second phase concerning people with a risk factor as well as certain health professionals, around 14 million people, is due to take place around the beginning of March.
"It is only at the end of spring that we will open vaccination to the entire population", warned Jean Castex, a shift when he had indicated two weeks ago wanting to initiate this phase " from spring ”.