Countries across Europe are launching a cross-border vaccination programme on an unprecedented scale today as part of efforts to end the pandemic that has crippled their economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives around the world.
Edith Kwoizalla, 101 years old, receives the first vaccination against Covid-19 by Pfizer and BioNTech from Dr Bernhard Ellendt, right, in a senior care facility in Halberstadt, central northern Germany.
Photo: AFP
The region of 450 million people has secured contracts with a range of suppliers for over two billion vaccine doses and has set a goal for all adults to be inoculated during 2021.
While Europe has some of the best-resourced healthcare systems in the world, the sheer scale of the effort means that some countries are calling on retired medics to help out while others have loosened rules for who is allowed to give the injections.