'The first ray of light after a long night'

A doctor injects an elderly woman with the COVID vaccine in Grossraeschen, Germany, on Sunday. Pic/AFP

Doctors, nurses and the elderly rolled up their sleeves across the European Union to receive the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine Sunday in a symbolic show of unity and moment of hope for a continent confronting its worst health care crisis in a century.

Even though a few countries started giving doses a day early, the coordinated rollout for a bloc of 27 nations and nearly 450 million people aimed at projecting a unified message that the vaccine was safe and was Europe's best chance to emerge from the pandemic and the economic devastation caused by months of lockdown.

Italian virus czar Domenico Arcuri said, "Today is a beautiful, symbolic day: All the citizens of Europe together are starting to get their vaccinations, the first ray of light after a long night."

The vaccines, developed by Germany's BioNTech and American drugmaker Pfizer, started arriving in super-cold containers at EU hospitals on Friday from a factory in Belgium. Each country was only getting a fraction of the doses needed - fewer than 10,000 in the first batches - with the bigger rollout expected in January when more vaccines become available. Altogether, the EU's 27 nations have recorded at least 16 million infections and over 3,36,000 deaths.

No int'l fliers: Japan

Japan is barring entry of all non-resident foreign nationals as a precaution against a new and potentially more contagious coronavirus variant that has spread across Britain. The Foreign Ministry says the entry ban will start on Monday and last through Jan. 31. Last week, Japan banned non-resident foreigners coming from Britain and South Africa after confirming the new variant in seven people.

French are wary

Polls suggest that people in France are a bit sceptical of the new vaccines, so France's government has been cautious in its messaging and is not making the vaccines obligatory. The government hopes to be able to vaccinate up to 27 million of its 67 million people by summer. France has reported over 62,570 lives lost in the pandemic.