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.
Britain has claimed a scientific “triumph” as dialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, became the first person to receive the Oxford / AstraZeneca shots outside a trial.
As major powers reap the benefits of being the first to emerge from the pandemic, Britain is rushing to vaccinate its population faster than the United States and the rest of Europe, although Russia and China have been inoculating their citizens for months.
Less than a month after the UK became the first country to launch the vaccine developed by Pfizer, and the German company BioNTech, Pinker, which has kidney disease, received the Oxford / AstraZeneca blow.
“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.
Pinker said he is looking forward to celebrating his 48th wedding anniversary with his wife Shirley in February.
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, has seen a resurgence of cases to new highs.
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.
But two new variants of coronavirus complicate the COVID-19 response and could impose new national restrictions in England.
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.
“WEEKS TO COME”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of the “hard and difficult weeks to come” and said new restrictions would arise.
“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.
Since the launch of the Pfizer vaccine on December 8, the UK has administered more than one million COVID-19 vaccines – more than the rest of Europe put together, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
“This is a triumph of British science that we have managed to get to where we are,” Hancock told Sky. “Right from the start, I saw that the vaccine was the only way out in the long run.”
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.
WE POSSIBLE LOCKING
The UK has become the first Western country to approve and launch a COVID-19 vaccine, although it is a few months behind Russia and China. 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.
England is divided into four different levels, depending on the prevalence of the virus, and Hancock said the rules in some parts of the country at level 3 do not work clearly.
Asked if the government intends to impose a new national blockade, Hancock said: “We do not rule anything out.”
Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, also 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.”
Written by William James, Guy Faulconbridge and Alistair Smout; Editing by Kate Holton, Raissa Kasolowsky, Nick Macfie and Mike Collett-White