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Britain expects next batch of Pfizer vaccine next week, says health minister
Britain began the mass-vaccination of its population against Covid-19 on Tuesday, becoming the first Western nation to do so in a global endeavour that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history.
Britain is confident that the next batch of the Pfizer vaccine will be delivered next week, said its health minister Matt Hancock, after Margaret Keenan became the first Briton to be vaccinated on Tuesday.
“We have a high degree of confidence in the delivery that will come next week,” Hancock told Sky News.
He said he felt “quite emotional” seeing the pictures of the first vaccination taking place, adding that the programme was starting across 70 hospitals in the UK.
Britain is due to receive several million more doses of the vaccination over the course of this month, he added.
Britain began the mass-vaccination of its population against Covid-19 on Tuesday, becoming the first Western nation to do so in a global endeavour that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history.
On a day dubbed “V-Day”, health workers started inoculating people with a shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, with the country a test case for the world as it contends with distributing a compound that must be stored at -70C (-94F).
Read more| UK PM Boris Johnson thanks health workers after Covid-19 vaccine launch
Britain is the first country globally to begin mass inoculations with that vaccine, one of three shots that have reported successful results from large trials after being developed in record time.
Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother from Britain, was the first person in the world to receive the vaccine outside of a trial following its rapid clinical approval.
Health minister Matt Hancock described the start of vaccinations as “V-Day”. “If we manage to do that for everybody who is vulnerable to this disease, then we can move on and we can return to normal,” he said.
The launch will fuel hope that the world may be turning a corner in the fight against a pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people and crushed economies.
Britain, the worst-hit European country with over 61,000 deaths, has ordered enough supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot to vaccinate 20 million people. The developers said it was 95% effective in preventing illness in final-stage trials.
Britain approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use less than a week ago, and is rolling it out ahead of the United States and European Union, from which it will finally part ways at the end of the year.
“The deployment of this vaccine marks a decisive turning point in the battle with the pandemic,” said Simon Stevens, head of the publicly funded NHS health service.
In total Britain has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot. As each person requires two doses, that is enough to vaccinate 20 million people in the country of 67 million.
But the country is spreading it bets and has ordered 357 million doses of seven different Covid-19 vaccines in all.
Russia and China have both already started giving domestically produced vaccine candidates to their populations, though before final safety and efficacy trials have been completed.
