COVID-19 Vaccine Arrives in Iceland
The vaccine has arrived. Photo/Police
An aircraft carrying Iceland’s first shipment of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine landed at Keflavík International Airport this morning, mbl.is reports. The aircraft left Amsterdam, the Netherlands, shortly after 7 am. It transported 10,000 doses of the vaccine, sufficient for 5,000 people.
The vaccine was then to be transported to the warehouse of the distribution company Distica, which will be in charge of its distribution. There, it will be received by Minister of Health Svandís Svavarsdóttir, Chief Epidemiologist Þórólfur Guðnason, Chief Superintendent Víðir Reynisson, and Director of Health Alma Möller.
What makes the vaccine complicated to transport is that it must be kept at a temperature of minus 60°C to minus 80°C (minus 76 to minus 112°F).
Photo/The Department of Civil Protection
Vaccinations in Iceland will begin tomorrow, Tuesday. The first people to be vaccinated are healthcare workers at Landspítali National University Hospital, as well as residents of nursing homes.
“All of this has been planned,” states Óskar Reykdalsson, director of the Capital Area Health Clinics. “We prioritize according to the guidelines of the office of the director of health.”
