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MORE than half a million Britons have taken a hit from Covid as the NHS races to protect the nation at a record pace.
Boris Johnson celebrated the great milestone last night and said progress should give the nation “hope and confidence.”
⚠️ Read our live coronavirus blog for the latest news and updates
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The UK was the first in the world to approve the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, and Maggie Keenan, 91, was one of the first to receive it on December 8.
It is now offered by hundreds of GP and hospital surgeries, and millions of people will receive it before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency approved the jab yesterday, three weeks after the UK.
The prime minister said at a Downing Street briefing: “The UK is the first country to have distributed a clinically approved vaccine and it has now reached the arms of 500,000 people across the country.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted about the Union Flag: “What good news. . . We are accelerating the vaccination program.
“We must all do everything we can to suppress this virus to protect our NHS and save lives.”
RETURN TO NORMALITY
Government sources are now waiting for the UK regulator to approve the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford just days after Christmas.
It is easier to distribute and will allow the NHS to accelerate the mass vaccination program.
Patients will still need a second prick three weeks after the first.
The Health Department said: “Vaccines, when combined with effective treatments, will form a vital part of making Covid-19 a manageable disease, hopefully allowing us to return to normal in the future.”
Despite shortage fears, the government said there has been a “regular and constant” supply of injections in the country and that there are enough to meet current demand.
Most of this year’s supply is already in the country.
However, The Sun may reveal that hundreds of doses are dropped every day amid confusion over who can get hit.
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Some doctors say they cannot find enough patients in the target age group, while others claim that they have been told they cannot use the leftover vaccines.
Pfizer vaccine must be stored at -70 ° C and batches must be used within five days of removal from storage.
The first in line for injections are nursing home residents and their caregivers, patients over 80 and NHS staff.
NHS England’s contract with GPs says they can beat people outside of these groups if there are “exceptional circumstances” and “resources would have otherwise been wasted”.
But some doctors say that despite receiving more doses than patients over 80 years of age have, health officials have told them that they cannot offer the vaccine to younger patients.
Meanwhile, the hospital and GP offer some patients the injection on the same day, increasing the number of no-show appointments.
‘THROW IT ON THE DECK’
One doctor said he had thrown away dozens of doses in the past two days alone.
A complaining doctor said: “We were the first country in the world to receive the vaccine and now we are throwing it away.”
A doctor wrote in a WhatsApp group: “It is ridiculous that you are not allowed to donate more than 75 if there is excess, it does not make sense; almost criminal, since those over 75 can die from this.”
Staff at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough were said to have pulled people out of the parking lot to use their surplus.
Other issues have included batches not being delivered or GPs not having enough staff to deal with.
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Last night Dr Clare Gerada, former President of the Royal College of GPs, said: “It would be a tragedy if a single dose of the Covid vaccine were to be wasted.”
Professor Martin Marshall from the Royal College of GPs said: “There are likely to be initial problems with giving a completely new vaccine at this scale and speed.
“It is important that, where appropriate, any vaccine waste is included in the data so that we can see the magnitude of this problem and address it.”
THE SUN SAYS
WHAT bright news is that over 500,000 Britons have received their first dose of the Covid vaccine.
Thanks to a combination of fast-moving regulators, an efficient healthcare service, and nimble policymaking (made possible by Brexit), the UK is on track to eliminate the virus months earlier than other European countries.
Of course, we shouldn’t count our chickens too early. And worryingly, some hospitals are ditching vaccines in confusion with government rules – any setback could cost lives.
But we are hopeful that it is an initial problem that can soon be rectified.
We must all prepare for a long dark winter. But at the end of the day, the road to recovery seems clear.
Three cheers to the scientists, the lab technicians, the drivers, the nurses, and everyone who takes these precious blows to the people who need them so desperately.
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