A 101-year-old woman in a nursing home in eastern Germany became the country’s first recipient of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine on Saturday, a day before the planned European Union vaccination campaign, an ambitious attempt to eventually vaccinate more than 450 million people across 27 countries. In the European Union against Coronavirus.

Vaccinations have also started in Hungary, where photos have shown health care workers receiving the vaccine At South Central Pest Hospital In Budapest. Reuters reported that authorities in Slovakia also began administering their first doses on Saturday.

Ursula von der Leyen, chair of the European Union’s executive arm, released a video before the official launch on Sunday, describing the campaign as a „moving moment of unity“.

Almost two-thirds of Germans Ready to be vaccinated against the Coronavirus, according to a YouGov survey for the German news agency DPA, but more than half of the participants said they were concerned about the possible side effects.

European doses are produced at BioNTech manufacturing sites in Germany, and the Pfizer site in Puurs, Belgium. According to the two companiesAnd the bloc countries began to receive their first shipments.

In Germany, all 16 states received 9,750 doses of the vaccine on Saturday. Each state sends them to regional immunization centers, and then teams of drivers distribute them to nursing homes and aged care centers across the country.

Carsten Fischer, in charge of managing the epidemic response in the Harz region of Saxony-Anhalt, said that the logistics in his area made it possible to start vaccination within hours of receiving the doses, and he saw no reason to wait.

„We didn’t want to waste a day, because the stability of the vaccine decreases over time,“ Mr. Fischer told MDR.

The first vaccination was given in Halberstadt, to Edith Koisala, 101 years old; 40 other residents and 11 nursing home staff also received doses, MDR reported.

„Every day we wait a lot,“ Tobias Krueger, the house manager, told reporters.

The eastern states of Germany were the hardest hit by the second wave of the virus. More than 1.6 million people in the country have been infected, and More than 29,400 diedMany of them are elderly, especially those who live in nursing homes.

Residents of nursing homes and their caregivers, as well as emergency medical staff and individuals 80 years of age or older, will be among the first to be vaccinated in Germany, based on a plan drawn up by leaders, medical advisors and national members of the Ethics Council. The country’s health minister, Jens Spahn, said on Saturday that government members are not planning to receive vaccinations before their peers.

„We have deliberately said that we will start vaccinating the most vulnerable people,“ Span said. „If ever there is a time when it makes sense, say to boost confidence, then all of us are ready for vaccination.“