BERLIN — From nursing homes in France to hospitals in Poland, older Europeans and the workers who care for them rolled up their sleeves on Sunday to receive coronavirus vaccine shots in a campaign to protect more than 450 million people across the European Union. The inoculations offered a rare respite as the continent struggles with one of its most precarious moments since the coronavirus pandemic began. Despite national lockdowns, restrictions on movement, shuttering of restaurants and cancellations of Christmas gatherings, the virus has stalked Europe into the dark winter months. In Germany, a nursing home in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt chose not to wait for Sunday’s planned rollout of the vaccination campaign across the European Union, inoculating a 101-year-old woman and dozens of other residents and staff members on Saturday, hours after the doses arrived. People were also vaccinated on Saturday in Hungary and Slovakia.

Source: New York Times December 27, 2020 08:26 UTC