Spain receives 1st batch of coronavirus vaccine

The first vaccines will be administered Sunday morning at a nursing home in Guadalajara.

Spanish authorities say the first batch of the coronavirus vaccine to reach the country has arrived.

Boxes of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines are loaded into a van for distribution, one day before the country starts its vaccination programme, at a warehouse in Cabanillas del Campo, Guadalajara, Spain. (Reuters)

The government said Saturday morning that a truck transporting the vaccine produced by Pfizer arrived at a company warehouse in the central city of Guadalajara after making the trip from Belgium. It is the first part of what the government says will be weekly shipments of an average of 350,000 doses.

The first vaccines will be administered Sunday morning at a nursing home in Guadalajara.

Spain plans to receive more than 4.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine over the next 12 weeks, enough it says to immunize just over 2.2 million people. It will represent the first phase of a national vaccination plan.