The vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech, the American Modern, the Chinese Sinopharm and the Russian Sputnik V are those that have already begun to be applied in at least 30 countries around the world. There are three nations in Latin America that have been the first.
Costa Rica, Mexico and Chile are not only among the more than 30 countries in the world that began their vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 but are also the first three to apply immunization in Latin America that prioritizes people in high risk of contracting the virus already health workers.
The first vaccines come after months of uncertainty, confinements – which still continue – and strict health protocols that are being implemented to try to contain the world epidemic that has left during this 2020 more than 80 million infected and more than 1.7 million of the dead.
China, where the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated, was the first planet country to start with vaccination reserved for those most at risk. Thus, more than one million experimental doses developed in this nation have been injected into this territory, an Infobae report said.
In this December 14, 2020 image, a medical worker shows a vial with the Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine against coronavirus disease. Photo / AFP
In China followed Russia which from December 5 began to apply Sputnik V, the vaccine developed by the Russian National Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Gamaleya. Workers at risk were the immunized.
Meanwhile, on December 8, the United Kingdom began the campaign with the vaccine developed by the US-German alliance Pfizer-BioNTech.
READ MORE: A 90-year-old woman is the first to receive the Cfid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech
Canada and the United States kicked off with the app on December 14th. Later Switzerland on the 23rd and Serbia on the 24th, all with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
It should be noted that the United States and Canada are also the first two countries to have authorized the Modern American vaccine.
The United Arab Emirates launched its campaign with Chinese doses Sinopharm, which kicked off on December 14 in Abu Dhabi, the capital. Also in the Emirates, Dubai began vaccinating on December 23 with doses of Pfizer-BioNTech.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain began their campaign on December 17, Israel on the 19th, Qatar on the 23rd, Kuwait on the 24th. Meanwhile, Oman began its campaign this Sunday. All of these countries initially opted for Pfizer-BioNTech; but Bahrain also injected doses of Sinopharm.
In Latin America, Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica began their campaign on December 24 with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.
Dona Elizabeth Castell, 91, is the first person in Costa Rica to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. photo @CarlosAlvQ
The first doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine arrived over the weekend in European Union member countries, escorted by security forces.
Germany, Hungary and Slovakia already vaccinated some people on Saturday. Europe is numerically the region most affected in the world by this pandemic and has already surpassed 25 million cases and 546,000 deaths.
In Germany, Health Minister Jens Spahn expressed his discomfort with the vaccination on Saturday of residents of a nursing home, a day before the official start of the campaign, which turned a woman of 101 years in the first vaccinated Germany.
ALSO READ: Arturo Contreras, of the Fire Department, was one of the first Salvadorans to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in Washington
Countries such as Italy and Spain began vaccinating their population against coronavirus this Sunday.
“Nothing, nothing (…) thank you very much,” said, smiling, Araceli Hidalgo Sánchez, a small 96-year-old woman who became the first Spaniard to receive the coveted injection, in a residence of elderly people in Guadalajara (center).
Almost at the same time, in Italy, nurse Claudia Alivernini and Maria Rosaria Capobianchi, director of a virology laboratory at Spallanzani Hospital in Rome, were the first to receive the vaccine in the country. In Italy, widespread vaccination will begin on January 8.
Thousands of kilometers away, in Bucharest, Romanian nurse Mihaela Anghel, 26, the first to treat a patient with COVID-19 in the country in February, was the first to be vaccinated.
In France, Mauricette, a 78-year-old home caregiver, was the first to receive the first dose. “I’m excited, it’s an honor,” said, in tears, the elderly woman, who lives in a center in Sevran, on the outskirts of Paris and added “It’s hot,” a comment that caused laughter and applause from staff hospital.
Health workers applaud Mauricette, a 78-year-old Frenchwoman, after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Rene-Muret Hospital in Sevran, on the outskirts of Paris, on December 27, 2020 . Photography / AFP
In Austria the first inoculated in Vienna, an 84-year-old woman, has declared to the public broadcaster ORF the desire to “see children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren again without problems.”
In Poland, a nurse was the first to be vaccinated in a care center by the Ministry of the Interior in Warsaw. In Croatia, an 81-year-old woman, living in the Trešnjevka nursing home in Zagreb, said she was happy: “The vaccine has arrived earlier than we expected and now we should all accept it for our friends, our families. and ourselves. ” As vaccination began in old people’s homes in Slovenia.
READ ALSO: Vaccines against COVID-19: differences, similarities and myths
In Greece the first to receive the dose was Esfstathia Kampisiuli, a nurse in the intensive care unit of Evangelismos Hospital. “Today is a historic day, it is the beginning of a new stage. I feel lucky to be the first person in Greece to be vaccinated. I think a lot of people envy me today,” he said.
In Bulgaria the Minister of Health, Kostadin Angelov, and the Orthodox Bishop Tihon were the first citizens of the country to be immunized, while Lithuania was started by its health personnel.
In Portugal, António Sarmento, director of the Infectious Diseases Service at São João Hospital in Porto and first inoculated, expressed his confidence that “studies have shown that the reactions are similar to those of other viral vaccines.”
Dr. António Sarmento receives a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on December 27, 2020 at the Sao Joao Hospital in Porto. Photo / AFP
In Sweden, the first dose was given to a 91-year-old woman from a nursing home in Mjölby, a small town between Stockholm and Gothenburg, while in Denmark a 79-year-old man, resident in an Odense nursing home, who said humorously, “hopefully it works.”
Belgium will start its vaccination campaign until Monday, as will Luxembourg, while the Netherlands will send the first notifications on 4 January.
In Argentina, the vaccination campaign will begin on Tuesday, with 300,000 doses of the Russian laboratory laboratory Sputnik V vaccine Gamelaya. It is the first country in Latin America to authorize this vaccine. Argentina also approved the Pfizer / BioNTech formula.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused at least 1,758,026 deaths worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the outbreak of the disease in December 2019, according to a balance sheet set by AFP this Sunday from official sources.
Since the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 virus more than 80,264,840 people have contracted the disease. Of these at least 50,548,400 were recovered, according to authorities.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: AstraZeneca claims to have “the winning formula” in the vaccine