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LONDON: Britain on Monday (January 4) took another giant step in the fight against COVID-19, increasing its immunization schedule by administering the world’s first injections of the vaccine created by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical giant. AstraZeneca.
Dialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, was the first to receive the new vaccine, administered by the head nurse at Oxford University Hospital. Pinker said he was very happy and that “now I may be looking forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
Six hospitals in England are administering the first of 530,000 doses that Britain has prepared. The program will expand to hundreds of other British sites in the coming days, and the government expects it to deliver tens of millions of doses in a few months.
“This is a crucial 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,” Health Minister Matt Hancock said in a statement.
Last month, Britain became the first country to use a different vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech, which must be stored at very low temperatures. So far, Britain has injected around 1 million people.
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Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is cheaper and can be stored at refrigerator temperature, making it easy to transport and use. India approved the vaccine on Sunday for emergency use.
COVID-19 cases in Britain have risen dramatically in recent weeks, driven by a newer and more communicable variant of the virus. On Sunday there were almost 55,000 new cases, and in total more than 75,000 people in the country died of COVID-19 during the pandemic, the second highest figure in Europe.
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While the government has wanted to hail its vaccination program as the most advanced in the world, it has had to balance the optimism of that message and plead with the public to adhere to the rules to prevent new infections.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday that stricter restrictions are likely to be introduced, even with millions of citizens already living under the strictest level of rules.
The spread of the virus variant has also forced the government to change its vaccination approach. Britain now prioritizes giving a first dose of a vaccine to as many people as possible rather than giving a second dose. Delaying the distribution of second shots should help stretch the supply.
The change in strategy has drawn criticism from some British doctors.
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