- Saturday marked the day when the first coronavirus vaccines were launched across Europe.
- The European Medicines Agency approved a vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech on Monday, joining the United States and the United Kingdom to do so.
- The EMA took much longer to approve the vaccine, and the European Commission and EU governments pressured the EMA to work faster, Reuters reported.
- Countries received a maximum of 10,000 doses each as part of the first shipment.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Europe started receiving its first doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
On Monday, the European Medicines Agency approved the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, joining the US and UK to do so after a long delay.
The doses of the vaccine were made in Belgium and sent across the European Union on Friday night.
Of the first batch, the 27 EU member states are generally limited to 10,000 doses each, the Associated Press reported.
“Here is the good news for Christmas,” said Jens Spahn, the German health minister, on Saturday.
“At the moment, trucks are underway across Europe, Germany and their regions, to deliver the first vaccine.”
“This vaccine is the decisive key to ending this pandemic,” he said.
See what the moment was like across Europe.