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After Margaret Keenan, the 90-year-old British woman who became the first person in the world to receive the covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in the United Kingdom on Tuesday, the first man, 81 years old, was vaccinated. years, called William Shakespeare, namesake of the English poet.
The old man said he was very “very happy.” “It is incredible to see the vaccine, it is incredible to see this tremendous momentum for the entire nation, but we cannot relax,” he said. But “we have not defeated the virus yet,” he said, before asking everyone to accept the injection without fear.
The United Kingdom, the first Western country to start vaccinating its population against the new coronavirus, has decided to give priority to the elderly, their carers and health professionals.
Margaret Keenan, who will turn 91 next week, was the first to receive a dose, shortly after 6.30 am on Tuesday (at the same time in mainland Portugal) at a hospital in Coventry, central England.
“I feel very privileged to be the first person to be vaccinated against COVID-19. It is the best anticipated birthday gift I could hope for,” Kenan said in front of the photographers and television cameras.
She has been isolated since the beginning of the pandemic in March and thanks to the vaccine, of which she will receive a second dose in 21 days. “I can think of spending time with my family and friends in the New Year,” he told Britain’s Press Association news agency.
The United Kingdom, the country most affected in Europe by the pandemic, with more than 62,000 confirmed deaths, was the first Western country to authorize the use of a vaccine against covid-19.
Russia began administering its vaccine, called Sputnik V, last weekend, and China is also supplying an experimental vaccine to a small group of the population. The United States and the European Union are still awaiting approval from their regulatory agencies.
Vaccination was only started in hospitals, 50 in total, due to the need to keep the product at a very low temperature, between -70ºC and -80ºC.
The country has received the first 800,000 doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in recent days, from laboratories in Belgium.
The success of the vaccination is crucial for the Johnson administration, which has been widely criticized for its misguided policies against the pandemic and is facing a revolt by conservatives against severe local restrictions that took effect on December 2, after the second. confinement.
To combat the doubts of some Britons about receiving the injection, Queen Elizabeth II, 94, and her husband Filipe, 99, can get vaccinated in public in the coming days.
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