Following the emergency approval of the Corona vaccine from German pharmaceutical company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer, vaccination is set to begin in the US on Monday. The first to be vaccinated will be employees of healthcare facilities and residents of nursing homes and homes for the elderly. Meanwhile, in England, Corona vaccinations will be administered in GP surgeries across the country starting this week. The announcement was made by the National Health Service (NHS).
After receiving emergency approval in the U.S. on Friday, the vaccine was packaged and shipped over the weekend. Meanwhile, the total number of Corona infections in the U.S., where the pandemic remains out of control, exceeded 16 million people.
In England, Corona vaccinations are now being administered at GPs. According to the report, at 100 sites across the country, 80-year-olds and nursing home residents and staff are being vaccinated with the drug recently licensed in the country by Biontech and Pfizer. Initially, the vaccine could only be administered in hospitals because of the complexity of storing it at about minus 70 degrees.
Vaccinations of nursing home residents are also planned this week in the other parts of the United Kingdom, namely Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the release said. The health system is the responsibility of each regional government. In early December, the U.K. became the first country in the world to grant the Mainz-based pharmaceutical company Biontech and its U.S. partner Pfizer emergency approval for their Corona vaccine.
The Robert Koch Institute in Germany reported 16,362 new infections at the start of the week. The numbers are usually lower on Monday because less testing is done over the weekend and less data is submitted. However, 4,030 fewer new infections had been reported last Monday. This brings the total number of infections in Germany to 1,337,078, with another 188 people dying from or with the virus, for a total of 21,975.
The seven-day incidence reportedly rises to 176.4, moving further away from the target of 50 that the federal and state governments are aiming for. The figure indicates how many people per 100,000 population become newly infected within seven days.
hp, Source: APA and kleinezeitung.at. picture: pixabay.com
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