The European Union (EU) has begun testing its 446 million population in what members called a “touching moment of unity” as it planned to successfully inoculate all citizens by the end of next year.

In a Twitter post, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Today, we start turning the page on a difficult year. The #COVID19 vaccine has been delivered to all EU countries.

“Vaccination will begin tomorrow (yesterday, December 27) across the EU.”

This came after pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its partner BioNTech successfully delivered their co-manufactured coronavirus vaccine to all of EU’s member states.

Some countries began administering the jabs over the weekend, saying that they could not wait another day.

As of press time, the entire EU’s confirmed coronavirus-related death were at 335,000, with more than 14 million infected.

Strict lockdowns remained in place in almost all member states amid the continued rise in infections.

It can be learned that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Commission authorized Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine, with the bloc increasing its supply order to two billion from a range of drug manufacturers.

In a separate statement, German Health Minister Jens Spahn was quoted as saying in a report by BBC that the vaccine “is the crucial key [to] defeating the pandemic.”

“It’s the key for us getting back our lives,” he added.

For his part, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio urged Italians to get the jabs.

“We’ll get our freedom back. We’ll be able to embrace it again,” he said.

In Germany, health workers decided not to wait for Sunday and began immunizing elderly residents of a nursing home in Halberstadt.

Meanwhile, the first recipient of the vaccine in Hungary was a doctor at Del-Pest Central Hospital.

Slovakia also began with mass vaccination over the weekend.

On the other hand, The Netherlands deferred the mass inoculation until January 8 over issues of logistics and bureaucracy.

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