Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old British dialysis patient, became the first person in the world to receive the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca outside a clinical trial on Monday.
Pinker, who requires dialysis for kidney disease, was inoculated with the drug at 7.30 am (local time) at Churchill Hospital, located in the British city of Oxford, by nurse Sam Foster.
The man said he was “grateful” for the vaccine and said he was “really proud” that it was developed at Oxford. “The nurses, doctors and (health) staff were brilliant today and can now go on to celebrate the 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley at the end of the year,” he added, as reported BBC.
The UK is ready to deliver over half a million doses of Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine during the day. Specifically, the British health authorities have 530,000 doses of vaccine to be administered on Monday in six medical institutions in Oxford, London, Sussex, Lancashire and Warwickshire.
The British Minister of Health, Matt Hancock, described the milestone as an “essential moment” in the fight against the country’s disease, while saying that “difficult weeks” are coming, although “this is the way out”.
The UK is in the midst of a substantial increase in new COVID-19 infections, with more than 50,000 people registered this Sunday. To date, the country’s health authorities have confirmed more than 2.6 million infected people, including more than 75,000 deaths.
In this regard, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has already stressed that the Government will “undoubtedly” tighten restrictive measures to stop the spread of the disease.
The “prime minister” spoke in line with the head of the health portfolio and predicted that the coming weeks will be “tough, tough”, with more than three quarters of the country’s population below the highest level of pandemic alert, the fourth, which involves the most severe restrictions.
“We have been waiting to see the impact of level four measures on the virus, which is not yet clear,” he said. “But if we look at the numbers, there is no doubt that we will have to take tougher measures and they will be announced in due course,” he added.
VIRUS VARIANT
On the other hand, during the day, Hancock referred to the coronavirus variant found in the United Kingdom and stressed that it is more “dangerous” and that it is transmitted “much easier”. “It’s much more contagious. You just have to keep in touch with a small viral load to get the disease,” he explained.
In parallel, he alluded to a variant of the virus discovered in South Africa and stressed that he is “incredibly worried” about this, as reported by The Guardian newspaper.