On Tuesday morning, vaccinations against the coronavirus started in the Grand Duchy’s hospitals. All staff members will be offered the possibility to receive the vaccine, including doctors, nurses, maintenance staff, kitchen staff, and suppliers.
Members of the press had been invited to observe the administration of the first vaccines at the vaccination station of the Robert Schuman Hospitals in Kirchberg on Tuesday morning. The staff of the rehabilitation centre (Rehazenter) as well as those of the non-profit Omega 90 also receive their vaccines at this station. In a first phase, a total of 3,700 people will be vaccinated.
According to Marc Glesener, communications officer at the Robert Schuman Hospitals, 219 employees had already received their first dose of the vaccine at the end of December during the vaccination campaign at the Victor Hugo Hall in Limpertsberg. Glesener explained that they basically had two major groups: A priority group, i.e. those who work directly with Covid-19 patients, and then a second group, i.e. the rest of the staff.
For the past week, staff have been able to sign up for vaccinations. A thousand people have already done so, meaning that ten of the twelve days scheduled for vaccinations are already full. According to Dr Claude Schummer, vaccinations of staff members will continue until the end of March. Nonetheless, Dr Schummer hopes that it will also be possible to vaccinate the hospital’s vulnerable patients as soon as this first phase is over.
Last week, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) decided that six doses of vaccine, instead of five, could be taken out of a Biontech/Pfizer vial. Anne Otto, head of pharmacy at the hospital in Kirchberg, stated that they had already tried this and with careful work, they were able to do it. However, staff members remained cautious.
