LONDON: The UK is preparing to become the first country to implement the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine this week. According to the government, the injections will initially be available in hospitals before distributing the stocks to doctors’ clinics. Reuters reported. Britain approved the emergency use of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech last week. “This coming week will be a historic moment when we start vaccination against Covid-19,” Matt Hancock, UK health secretary, said in a statement. “We are doing everything we can to make sure we can overcome the significant challenges in vaccinating home care residents.”
When will Britain start vaccinating?
The first doses will be given on Tuesday, and the National Health Service (NHS) will give top priority to vaccinating those over 80, frontline healthcare workers and nursing home staff and residents.
Britain has ordered 40 million doses
In all, Britain has ordered 40 million doses, enough to vaccinate 20 million people in the country of 67 million. About 800,000 doses are expected to be available during the first week.
The initial doses that have arrived from Belgium are stored in secure locations throughout the country, where their quality will be controlled, the Health Ministry said.
Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine Storage
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine should be kept at -70 ° C (-94 ° F) and only lasts for five days in a normal refrigerator. For that reason, the Health Ministry said the vaccine would be administered first in 50 hospitals. He said it would take a few hours to thaw each vaccine and prepare it for use. Instead of running clinics in individual surgeries, groups of local doctors will operate more than 1,000 vaccination centers across the country, the government said.
Challenges for Vaccine Storage
One of the main challenges in the coming weeks will be ensuring the vaccine is kept at the proper temperature. The injection should be stored at about minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit) and can only be moved four times within that cold chain before use, according to NHS England. Once thawed, the injection has a shelf life of days. Each box of vaccines, containing five 975-dose packs, must be manually unpacked and the temperature unloaded to verify that it has not changed during transport.
-With contributions from agencies
.
