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Vaccination programme begins in UK - 18th December 2020
Britain may be beginning to turn the tide in the global fight against Covid-19, pioneering the delivery of the Pfizer-BioNtech developed vaccine having completed the approval process in record time. As the NHS started administering it to the public, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was at Guy's Hospital in London to inspect the beginning of the largest vaccination programme in the country's history.
Johnson: "One in three people is passing it on without even having any symptoms at all yourself. Do you see what I mean? So you can be a secret spreader of the disease, and I don’t think people have grasped that. And it’s very, very important in the weeks ahead that everybody understands that."
The UK has secured 40 million doses of the vaccine, delivered via two separate jabs spaced 21 days apart, enough to immunise just under a third of the population. A 90 year old grandmother Margaret Keenan became the first person to receive the Covid vaccine. The historic inoculation was administered in Coventry, England.
Keenan: "At the moment I don't know how I feel. It’s just so, just so strange and so wonderful really. Yes. Anyway, this is for a good cause so I'm so pleased I had it done."
First in line for immunisation are the over 80s, care home workers and at risk frontline health and social staff, with 94 year old Queen Elizabeth believed to be amongst this group due to her age. It has been reported that the monarch may then front a public awareness campaign urging others to follow suit.
Across the globe, pharmaceutical companies are endeavouring to produce other vaccines in order to close the book on the pandemic at the first available juncture.
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