Frustration with Brussels' boiled over this weekend after the EU's long-awaited coordinated vaccine rollout to fight COVID-19 erupted into chaos. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had claimed the mass vaccination plan to start on Sunday was a "touching moment of unity". However, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia all jumped the gun by starting their vaccination rollout 24 hours earlier.
This comes amid increasing frustration at the slow pace of the EU's vaccine rollout, which is trailing behind the majority of its Western allies, including the UK.
The UK, US and Canada all began their vaccination programmes with the German-developed Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier this month.
Ms von der Leyen previously lauded the coordination as tweeted on Saturday: "Today, we start turning the page on a difficult year.
"The COVID-19 vaccine has been delivered to all EU countries. Vaccination will begin tomorrow across the EU."
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However, health workers in north-east Germany jumped ahead of Brussels and started immunising elderly residents of a nursing home in Halberstadt on Saturday.
Tobias Krueger, the operator of a nursing home, said: “Every day that we wait is one day too many.”
Similarly, in Hungary, the first recipient of the vaccine was a doctor at Del-Pest Central Hospital on Saturday.
The authorities in Slovakia also said they had begun vaccinating, as the three member states disrupted Brussels' plans for a co-ordinated rollout.
There is also concern the EU may run out of vaccine supplies, after trailing behind Britain and the US in vaccine orders.
Markus Söder, the state premier of the German state of Bavaria, told Bild newspaper on Sunday: “There is simply too little vaccine."
While the United States and the United Kingdom put in orders for the vaccine earlier in the summer, the EU only finalized its order in November after months of negotiations.
As of Wednesday, the EU still had not signed the contract for 100 million further doses.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMif2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmV4cHJlc3MuY28udWsvbmV3cy9wb2xpdGljcy8xMzc3MTc3L0VVLW5ld3MtQ292aWQtdmFjY2luZS1wbGFuLVVyc3VsYS12b24tZGVyLUxleWVuLUFuZ2VsYS1NZXJrZWwtR2VybWFueS1sYXRlc3Qtdm7SAYMBaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZXhwcmVzcy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3BvbGl0aWNzLzEzNzcxNzcvRVUtbmV3cy1Db3ZpZC12YWNjaW5lLXBsYW4tVXJzdWxhLXZvbi1kZXItTGV5ZW4tQW5nZWxhLU1lcmtlbC1HZXJtYW55LWxhdGVzdC12bi9hbXA?oc=5
2020-12-27 16:39:00Z
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