EU officials: The corona vaccine will be a Christmas gift to all Europeans

Margaritis SchinasPhoto: Francois Walschaerts / Pool via AP

EU Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas says the pharmaceutical agency EMA is working at supersonic speed and that the coronavirus vaccine will be a Christmas gift to Europeans.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier Wednesday that the EU’s 27 member states aim to start corona vaccination on the same day.

The goal of the coordination is to show unity, von der Leyen said in a statement to the European Parliament on Wednesday.

Whether Norway will participate in the scheme has not yet been decided, Preben Aavitsland of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) noted in an email to news bureau NTB on Wednesday.

It is also not clear on which day the vaccination will start in the EU countries. 

Vice President Margaritis Schinas suggests that the date may be December 26.

Vaccinations to start on December 26?

“In two days, we will do the work that usually takes two months,” Schinas said, adding that EU countries will be able to start vaccinating from around December 26.

“The vaccine will be a Christmas present for all the inhabitants of our continent,” Schinas told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The statements come in the wake of increased pressure on the EU to keep up with the United States and the United Kingdom, which have already approved a vaccine and started vaccinating the population.

On Tuesday, pressure from Germany led to the approval date in the EU being moved to December 21.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

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