Paris:
France’s 1st doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine have been delivered early Saturday to the Paris hospital system’s central pharmacy outdoors the capital, an AFP journalist saw.
After more than 62,000 Covid-19 deaths in France, shots are set to start with men and women in two elderly care houses on Sunday, the similar day the rest of the EU starts injections.
A refrigerated truck brought the roughly 19,500 doses from the Pfizer factory in Puurs, northeast Belgium, to Paris, the capital’s APHP hospital authority stated, with pharmacy chief Franck Huet calling it a “historic” moment in the pandemic.
After repackaging in Paris, the vaccines will be delivered to a extended-term care unit at a hospital in Sevran, outdoors the capital, and an old-age care household in Dijon, in eastern France.
The 1st EU deliveries come just after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the Pfizer-BioNTech shot its green light on Monday and France’s HAS well being authority in turn on Thursday.
Countries are specifically eager to start their vaccination campaigns as a new strain believed to be more infectious spreads from Britain. A 1st case was identified in France on Friday.
But substantial-scale inoculations for residents and employees in France’s 7,000 elderly care houses will not start till early 2021.
()