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The UK has issued an emergency approval for the Pfizer / Biontech vaccine, of which it has requested 40 million doses. The vaccine is administered in two doses, so they are enough to vaccinate 20 million of the 67 million inhabitants of the country, Reuters reports.
If everything goes according to plan, the health service will start the vaccination on Tuesday. About 800,000 doses are expected to be available during the first week. The first doses already arrived from Belgium and are now stored in safe places, where their quality will be controlled.
– It is as safe as any other regular vaccine, the kind you can get if you go on vacation or of course if you get a flu shot, June Raine tells the BBC.
First in line housing and staff in geriatric residences followed by people over 80 years of age, health personnel and social workers.
This means that 94-year-old Queen Elizabeth and her husband, 99-year-old Prince Philip, will be among the first to receive the vaccine. According to people at court, the queen pair will talk about when they have been vaccinated, writes The Times.
Pfizer’s vaccine must be stored at minus 70 degrees so that it is not destroyed and can only survive five days at normal freezing temperatures. Initially, the vaccine will be administered in 50 hospitals, while local health centers are expected to start the following week. Local doctors are believed to administer the vaccine at more than 1,000 vaccination centers.
The start of vaccination coincides with a crucial period in the negotiations between the UK and the EU on a post-Brexit trade deal. Failure to reach an agreement by the parties before the New Year could lead to disruptions in the transport of goods between the UK and EU countries.
Under the government’s contingency plan, military aircraft are ready to fly in millions of doses of vaccines from Belgium, The Guardian reports.
“We have several contingency plans in place and it will not affect the spread of this vaccine if a Brexit deal is not reached,” Environment Minister George Eustice told Sky News.
To date, the coronavirus has infected more than 1.7 million Britons, of whom more than 60,000 people have died.
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