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An 82-year-old dialysis patient on Monday became the first person in the world to receive the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca AZN.
and the University of Oxford since it was approved for use in the UK, which is battling a rapid increase in the number of coronavirus cases.
Brian Pinker, a retired maintenance manager, received the injection at 7:30 am GMT from Nurse Sam Foster at Oxford Churchill Hospital. “I am very happy to receive the COVID vaccine today and really proud that it was invented in Oxford,” Pinker said in a statement issued by the National Health Service.
More than half a million doses of the vaccine from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca AZN,
and Oxford University injection will be available from Monday, with tens of millions more to be delivered in the coming weeks and months once the regulator has verified the quality of the batches, the government said.
The UK government has secured access to 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca – Oxford vaccine, which was cleared for emergency use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, or MHRA, on December 30.
The vaccines will be administered at 730 already established vaccination sites across the UK, with others set to open this week to bring the total to more than 1,000, the government said in a statement.
“This is a pivotal moment in our fight against this terrible virus and I hope it brings renewed hope to all that the end of this pandemic is in sight,” said Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Hancock’s comments come nearly a month after the UK began launching the vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical company Pfizer PFE.
and its German partner BioNTech BNTX,
with over 1 million people having received their first dose of the two-dose injection.
Last week, the MHRA, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization and four UK medical directors agreed to delay the gap between the first and second doses of vaccines, in a bid to protect as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. .
The AstraZeneca – Oxford vaccine is easier to transport and store than the Pfizer – BioNTech injection, which should be kept at minus 70 degrees until shortly before use, facilitating nursing home delivery.
The launch of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine comes amid a resurgent outbreak of coronavirus cases in the UK, with more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases recorded for the sixth consecutive day. On Sunday, there were 54,990 new infections and 454 deaths, according to government data.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told national broadcaster BBC that tougher measures may be required in some parts of the country in the coming weeks to control the rapid spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. “If you look at the numbers, there is no question that we will have to take stricter action and announce them in due course,” Johnson said.
Read: Slow U.S. COVID-19 Vaccine Launch Could Herald More Trouble
Meanwhile, some European Union leaders have been criticized for the slowness of their vaccination programs, which began on December 27 with the injection of Pfizer-BioNTech.
BioNTech CEO Uğur Şahin told the German newspaper Der Spiegel that the process in Europe “was certainly not as quick and easy” as in other countries, in part because the EU is not directly empowered and member states have a voice.
The French government has pledged to accelerate the pace of vaccines after inoculating just over 350 people with the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine in the first six days, compared with 238,000 in Germany. Starting Monday, medical personnel aged 50 and over in France will receive the vaccines. Vaccines in the Netherlands will not be administered until January 8, when the IT system needed to plan and record vaccines will be ready.
Several European countries are ready to extend their lockdowns amid the increase in coronavirus cases. On Saturday, France moved to a night curfew in 15 departments from 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. On Tuesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to meet with Germany’s heads of state to decide whether to extend the current lockdown beyond 10 January.
