Britain launches AstraZeneca blows, but Prime Minister Johnson warns of “hard and tough weeks”

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain begins vaccinating its population with Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot for Monday in a world premiere, vying to provide protection for the elderly and vulnerable as a further increase in cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

In a dark context of daily record cases, the United Kingdom claimed a scientific “triumph”, the dialysis patient Brian Pinker, aged 82, became the first person to receive the Oxford / AstraZeneca shots outside a trial.

“I am so excited to receive the COVID vaccine today and am very proud that it was invented in Oxford,” said Pinker, a retired maintenance manager, just a few hundred meters from where the vaccine was developed.

The UK, which is facing the sixth highest number of deaths in the world and one of the worst economic successes in the COVID crisis, was the first country to launch the vaccine developed by Pfizer and the German company BioNTech recently. month.

It is a priority to give a first dose of vaccine to as many people as possible than to give a second dose, despite the fact that some doctors and scientists have expressed concern.

Two new variants of coronavirus complicate the COVID-19 response, and the United Kingdom has seen a reappearance in cases at new daily highs.

Scientists are not entirely confident that COVID-19 vaccines will work on a variant found in South Africa, said ITV political editor Robert Peston, while the cases were also fueled by a highly transmissible variant in the UK.

The launch of AstraZeneca came at a time when Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of the “hard and difficult weeks to come” and said new restrictions would be imposed on England.

“If you look at the numbers, there is no doubt that we will have to take tougher action and we will announce them in due course,” Johnson said on a visit to see health workers receiving the Oxford vaccine.

More than 75,000 people in the UK have died from COVID-19 within 28 days of a positive test, and millions in England are already living under the strictest level of restrictions.

Ahead of Johnson, Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon has imposed the strictest blockade since last spring.

“It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation we are facing now than we have been at any time since March,” she said.

TRIUMPH FOR SCIENCE

Since the launch of the Pfizer vaccine on December 8, Britain has administered more than a million COVID-19 vaccines – more than the rest of Europe put together, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said, adding that it was a triumph of science. UK.

The Johnson administration has provided 100 million doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be stored at refrigerator temperatures between two and eight degrees, making it easier to distribute than the Pfizer photo.

Six hospitals in England administer the first of 530,000 doses prepared by the UK. The program will be expanded to hundreds of other British sites in the coming days, and the government hopes to deliver tens of millions of doses in a few months.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it has administered 4.2 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines since Saturday morning and distributed 13.07 million doses.

More than a tenth of Israel’s population has had a vaccine and it now administers more than 150,000 doses a day.

Germany and Denmark are considering delaying the administration of a second dose of Pfizer vaccine to keep supplies low, following a similar move by the UK last week.

The United Kingdom has become the first Western country to approve and launch a COVID-19 vaccine, although it has been behind Russia and China for months, inoculating its citizens for months. Others have taken a longer and more cautious approach. Several different vaccines are still being tested at a late stage.

India approved the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday for emergency use.

Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, was among those who received the vaccine on Monday.

“We are on the verge of being overwhelmed by this disease,” he told BBC TV. “I think (the vaccine) gives us a little hope, but I think we have a few difficult weeks ahead.”