• December 8, 2020

UK grandmother becomes first person in the world to receive Pfizer Covid-19 jab in UK

LONDON Dec 8: A UK grandmother has become the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer Covid-19 jab as part of a mass vaccination programme. Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, said the injection she received at 06:31 GMT was the “best early birthday present”.

It was the first of 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that will be dispensed in the coming weeks. Up to four million more are expected by the end of the month.

Hubs in the UK are starting the rollout by vaccinating the over-80s and some health and care staff. Senior NHS sources told the BBC “thousands of vaccinations” had taken place across the UK on Tuesday.

Dubbing the day “V-day”, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was “a tribute to scientific endeavour and human ingenuity and to the hard work of so many people.

“Today marks the start of the fightback against our common enemy, the coronavirus,” he said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on a visit to a London hospital to see some of the first people getting the jab, said getting vaccinated was “good for you and good for the whole country”.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Today we should all allow ourselves a smile – but we must not drop our guard.”

On Tuesday, the UK government reported a further 616 people had died within 28 days of a positive test, taking the total, by that measure, to 62,033. A further 12,282 people tested positive for the virus.