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The Health Ministry, meanwhile, has released a vaccine delivery timetable. Assuming that the European Commission will authorize the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for use in the European Union (EU) on December 22, the first shipment might reach Latvia on December 26. The ministry indicated that the vaccines are stored frozen at minus 75 degrees centigrade. 

On the morning of December 28, drug wholesalers would deliver the vaccines to vaccination rooms set up in ten Latvia's hospitals where they can be kept for up to five days. 

Inoculation of healthcare workers working with Covid-19 patients in hospitals and employees of the Emergency Medical Service is scheduled to begin on the same day.

Health Minister Ilze Vinkele (For Development/For) said on Twitter that the vaccines are the best Christmas gift to the medics and society. 

As reported, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Monday that it had approved the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for inoculations to start across the EU within days.

The European Medicines Agency recommended conditional approval for the coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer to be used across the European Union.

"I am delighted to announce that the EMA scientific committee met today and recommended a conditional marketing authorization in the EU for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech," EMA chief Emer Cooke told an online press conference.