The European Union (EU) will begin coronavirus vaccination on December 27, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced. Von der Leyen on Thursday tweeted, "It's Europe's moment. On 27, 28 and 29 December vaccination will start across the EU.”
She added, "We protect our citizens together. We are stronger together.”
The announcement came two days after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) decided to bring forward a meeting to conclude its assessment of the vaccine jointly developed by Germany's BioNTech and America's Pfizer.
Confirming the vaccination news, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said: "In Germany, we will start, if the approval comes as planned, on December 27. The other countries in the EU want to be able to start from December 27."
As Germany is a member of the EU, the nation is obliged to wait for the EMA to approve the vaccine to start inoculation.
Currently, 222 Covid-19 candidates are working towards developing a vaccine against the coronavirus worldwide, and 56 of them were in clinical trials, according to the World Health Organisation.
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The development comes as the pandemic has infected a total of 15,130,100 people across the EU and resulted in the deaths of at least 375,930 others, according to the latest figures by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
In terms of overall infections, France is the worst affected with 2,376,852 cases, while Italy currently accounts for the highest death toll with 64,520 fatalities, the Centre added.