THE HAGUE Nearly two weeks after most other European Union nations, the Netherlands on Wednesday began its COVID-19 vaccination program, with nursing home staff and frontline workers in hospitals first in line for the shot.
Sanna Elkadiri, a nurse at a nursing home for people with dementia, was the first to receive a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a mass vaccination center in Veghel, 120 kilometers (75 miles) southeast of the capital, Amsterdam.
The Dutch government has come under fierce criticism for its late start to vaccinations. Prime Minister Mark Rutte told lawmakers in a debate Tuesday that authorities had focused preparations on the easy-to-handle vaccine made by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, which has not yet been cleared for use in the EU, and not the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Dutch Govt under fire for starting COVID-19 vaccination late
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Netherlands begins Covid-19 vaccinations, well after other EU nations
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WASHINGTON Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says the government will begin allowing more drugstores to start giving shots to speed coronavirus vaccinations.
Pharmacies from 19 chains had been on standby until vaccine supplies increased. Azar says allowing them to help with vaccinations would ease pressure on hospitals that have been the main vaccine providers.
Pharmacies would need to follow state plans for who gets in line first, and governors would decide how to divide supplies between the drugstores and other vaccination sites.
Azar says if health workers aren’t lining up fast enough, it’s OK to mix in other priority groups, and urged governors to make that clear.
GENEVA Swiss authorities plan to shut restaurants, bars, sports facilities and cultural institutions through the end of February.
The order is expected to take effect on Saturday. It lifts the exemptions for some of the 26 regions with a “favorable evolution” against the coronavirus making the restrictive measures effective nationwide. Ski resorts plan to remain open.
The country of about 8.5 million people tallied more than 4,808 cases in the last 24 hours a rate of 522 cases per 100,000 people.
Overall, there’s been more than 470,000 confirmed cases and 7,434 deaths in connection with COVID-19.
THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
The European Union has given approval to the Moderna vaccine. The decision gives the 27-nation bloc a second vaccine to use against the coronavirus. Germany’s health minister is defending the slow start of the country’s vaccine campaign, saying he understands the desire for a faster rollout. The Dutch kick off virus vaccination program, the la