Coronavirus Australia news: NSW Premier Gladys Berejkilian reports seven cases in past 24 hours, all linked to northern beaches

Germany, Hungary and Slovakia have stolen a march on their fellow European Union (EU) nations by starting to vaccinate people against coronavirus.

It came a day ahead of the official vaccine rollout in other EU countries, including France and Spain, as the pandemic surges across the continent.

Mass vaccinations for the bloc – home to almost 450 million people – would be a crucial step towards handling a pandemic that has killed more than 1.7 million around the world, crippled economies and destroyed businesses and jobs.

In Germany, a small number of residents of a retirement home were inoculated on Saturday (European-time), 24 hours before the country’s official start of its campaign.

The first person to be vaccinated was Edith Kwoizalla,…