AstraZeneca

Europe launched a mass COVID-19 vaccination drive on Sunday with pensioners and medics lining up to get the first shots to see off a pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide.

«Thank God,» 96-year-old Araceli Hidalgo said as she became the first person in Spain to have a vaccine at her care home in Guadalajara, near the capital Madrid.

Europe launched a mass COVID-19 vaccination drive today with pensioners and medics lining up to get the first shots to see off a pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide.

Thank God," 96-year-old Araceli Hidalgo said as she became the first person in Spain to have a vaccine at her care home in Guadalajara, near the capital Madrid.

Oι εμβολιασμοί με το εμβόλιο της  Οξφόρδης (AstraZeneca) θα ξεκινήσουν 4 Ιανουαρίου

They received the vaccine at the Torlak Institute while it was aired live on television.
Ana Brnabi was the first to sit down and thus became the first European Prime Minister to be vaccinated against coronavirus.

Talks are underway to increase the amount of COVID-19 vaccines to be delivered to Turkey, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said, adding that the country is also looking at alternatives to secure injections.

Turkey has already signed a deal to buy at least 50 million doses of an experimental vaccine being developed by China's Sinovac.

The Financial Times has selected Turkish-German scientists Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, who are at the helm of developing the world's first effective coronavirus vaccine, as 2020 People of the Year.

They are the symbol of a remarkable scientific and business success story, said the Financial Times.

Britain has agreed to spend 3.7 billion pounds on Covid-19 vaccines and in most cases will bear the liability if claims are made against the pharmaceutical companies involved.

Those that are self-financing will be guaranteed sufficient doses to protect a certain proportion of their population, depending on how much they buy into it; funded countries will receive enough doses to vaccinate up to 20 per cent of their population in the longer term.

The WHO says the programme represents "a huge success for multilateralism and cooperation."

UK and Russian scientists are teaming up to trial a combination of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines to see if protection against Covid-19 can be improved.

Mixing two similar vaccines could lead to a better immune response in people.

The trials, to be held in Russia, will involve over-18s, although it's not clear how many people will be involved.

AstraZeneca will start clinical trials to test a combination of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine with Russia's Sputnik V shot aimed at boosting the efficacy of the British drugmaker's vaccine, Russia's sovereign wealth fund said on Friday.