Coronavirus in Europe: 12.5 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be delivered by the end of the year

There is a double challenge in the horizon in Europe to face the coronavirus epidemic: the vaccine campaign and the third wave expected by January 2021. The green light has been given this Monday December 21 in the European Union and the first shots are to be inoculated from Sunday December 27, 2020.

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To do so, 12.5 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are to be delivered to the European Union by the end of the year, that is to say over half the 20 million intended to go to the United-States in the same period of time. For the record, the European Union counts around 447.7 million inhabitants – according to data from January 2020 – against 330.2 million in the United States of America.

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Careful though, 12.5 million doses do not mean as many Europeans will be vaccinated: this vaccine includes two injections, three weeks apart. Therefore, these doses can vaccinate 6.25 million people. In France, the vaccine campaign is to start from December 27, 2020. For the first step of the schedule, about one million French are given priority and are to be vaccinated by February 2021. The country has secured a total 200 million doses of Covid-vaccine.

As for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the production capacity shall – in February 2021- should be launched at BioNTech’s Marburg factory, Germany. It is expected to produce 750 million doses per year.