Health minister Paulette Lenert on 8 January had announced that the first shipment of the Moderna vaccine would arrive on Monday as part of a larger order. The country started its vaccination drive in late December with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The Moderna vaccine has the advantage of being stored at just -20°C, and not -70°C like the Pfizer/BioNTech jab. It is 94.1% effective at protecting people from a coronavirus infection, compared to Pfizer’s 95%. Both vaccines require two shots.

The grand duchy is guaranteed 110,462 doses of the Moderna vaccine through the contracts signed by the European Commission with the pharma company. Another 414,210 are guaranteed through Pfizer.

Another delivery of the Pfizer vaccine, containing 4,875 doses, also arrived as planned on Monday. The health minister said last week that 36,000 people should be able to get inoculated against Sars-CoV-2 with the Pfizer vaccine by end of March 2021.