On Monday morning, the head of the High Commission for National Protection Luc Feller sat down for an interview with RTL Radio.
Luxembourg's first two health care professionals received their initial dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday afternoon. Over the course of the upcoming 3 days, 430 further employees in the sector are set to stop by the Hall Victor Hugo in Limpertsberg to be vaccinated. After the first round is completed, 21 days need to pass before the second dose can be injected.
9,700 doses of the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine arrived in the Grand Duchy on Saturday, enough to protect 4,800 people from the coronavirus. The next delivery is set to arrive on 11 January 2021, followed by weekly transports, with 12,000 people set to be vaccinated before the end of January.
According to Feller, the two-day delay between the arrival of the vaccine and the first performed vaccinations was related to logistical processes. Pfizer was not able to directly deliver the doses to the country's hospitals, which is why a central storing space was needed. The three-week head start that the UK has on the European Union came about due to the extensive regulatory processes performed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which may have been more rigorous about the safety of the vaccine than other countries.
Feller further explained that the vaccination campaign consists of a global effort, which relies on more than just one viable vaccine. Once other models have been approved, we can start looking towards the future. Current estimates suggest that 36,000 people in Luxembourg will be vaccinated by the end of March, while orders for a total of 1 million doses have thus far been made.
