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A 90-year-old woman from Northern Ireland is the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 outside of a clinical trial, marking the start of the UK vaccination campaign.
Margaret Keenan feels herself on BBC “very privileged” for being the first to receive the drug at Coventry University Hospital, where she is hospitalized. It will be 91 next week and this is “the best anticipated birthday present”, said.
It was 6:30 am in the city of central England, at the same time in Lisbon, when the nurse midwife May Parsons inoculated the first of the 800,000 doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine that will be administered in the next few weeks, and expects it to reach 4 million. inoculations at the end of the month.
“I feel very privileged to be the first person to be vaccinated against Covid-19, it is the best anticipated birthday gift I could wish for, because it means that I will finally be able to spend time with my family and friends in the new year, after having been alone the most of the year. “
“I can’t thank May [enfermeira] and the NHS team [SNS britânico] who took care of me and my advice to anyone who is offered the vaccine is to get it; if I can receive it at 90, others can also receive it. “
Jacob King / AP
The “V Day” in the UK
According to British Health Minister Matt Hancock, this is a “historic moment”, having referred to the date as “V Day”. [uma referência ao Dia da Vitória da II Guerra Mundial].
European country most affected by the pandemic crisis (with more than 61 thousand deaths and more than 1.7 million cases of contagion), the United Kingdom is the first country in the world to have authorized the use of the anti-covid-19 vaccine developed by The US pharmaceutical group Pfizer and the German company BioNTech will be the first Western country to start its vaccination campaign.
In a statement released over the weekend, Matt Hancock said the first groups to receive the vaccine would be “the most vulnerable and those over 80”, as well as employees of nursing homes and residences for the elderly and the public health service British (NHS).
The specificities of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, which must be kept at minus 70 degrees, represent a logistical challenge, stressed the British health authorities, who pointed out that the doses have to be transported by a specialized company and that their thawing takes several hours. .
The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, protecting 20 million people, as this vaccine is administered in two doses.
Initially 800,000 doses will be available in the UK.
Despite the speed with which the UK regulator approved the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, the agency’s chief executive, June Raine, reiterated that “the highest international standards” were applied.
More than 1.5 million deaths and 67 million cases worldwide
The covid-19 pandemic caused at least 1,535,987 deaths derived from more than 67 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report prepared by the French agency AFP.
The countries that registered the highest number of new deaths are the United States, Mexico and Italy.
Among the most affected countries, Belgium has the highest number of deaths relative to its population, followed by Peru, Spain and Italy.
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