United Kingdom Begins Vaccinating the Country

The U.K. rolled out the first coronavirus vaccines to the public on Tuesday, making it the first country to inoculate people with a treatment that went through full testing.

Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, made history as the world’s first person to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine outside of trial conditions. The vaccine was approved by the U.K. drug regulator last week.

Now, the vaccine will be given to front-line health workers, nursing home workers and those ages over 80, before it is given more widely among the U.K. population.

The rollout comes at a crucial time for the country; the U.K. has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in Europe, after France and Italy, with over 1.7 million confirmed infections, and more than 61,000 deaths, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.

Fifty hospitals have been chosen to act as vaccine “hubs” in the U.K. and these will act as the primary place where the inoculations are administered. Later, the vaccine will be rolled out to community health centers, such as doctors’ surgeries, in order to facilitate a more general vaccination program, where the priority will depend on age and clinical need.

The U.K. preordered 40 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine, which proved to be 95% effective at preventing Covid infection in late-stage clinical trials.

As it’s a two-dose vaccine, the country has bought enough doses to vaccinate 20 million people. Pfizer’s delivery of the vaccines will be staggered, with the total amount expected to have been delivered by the end of 2021.

Britain has also preordered other Covid-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca and Moderna, but these are yet to be granted approval.

Source:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/07/uk-to-rollout-covid-vaccine-tuesday.html 

https://apnews.com/article/uk-gives-first-covid-19-vaccine-doses-719288c35d8ef8815b56b1c9c5fff24c