A 78-year-old woman became the first person to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in France, according to a tweet from Aurélien Rousseau, director general of the health agency in the Ile-de-France region.
Rousseau posted a photo of the vaccination on Twitter on Sunday and described it as “an intense time … that brings a lot of hope.”
The first person to be vaccinated is a former domestic worker named Mauricette. She received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Sunday morning at a public hospital in the Paris metropolitan area.
“I’m touched,” she said.
A 65-year-old cardiologist, Dr. Jean-Jacques Monsuez, received the vaccine shortly after.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that:
“Following the green light from the health authorities, the vaccination campaign starts today, in France as in Europe.”
He added that the vaccine would be completely free and voluntary.
A dozen elderly people and caregivers are due to be vaccinated on Sunday, at the symbolic launch of the French vaccination campaign, in Greater Paris and in Dijon, in northeastern France.
The European Union launched the first phase of its mass vaccination program on Sunday. In addition to France, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic and Spain are among the member states that started giving vaccines this weekend.
The French government says it plans to vaccinate one million people by the end of February, focusing on the elderly, the most vulnerable and caregivers.