90-year-old British woman becomes first person to receive Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine

A 90-year-old woman named Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine outside of a trial. According to the reports by Livemint, Keenan, who is a former jewellery shop assistant, received the shot at University Hospital Coventry at 6:31am. The United Kingdom has started rolling out Pfizer’s vaccine against the novel coronavirus. 

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hailed the moment as a “huge step forward” and dubbed the day as “V-Day” or Vaccine Day in Britain. People aged 80 and above, those working in care homes, as well as NHS workers will be first in line to receive the “life-saving jab”. The UK PM also warned that mass vaccination will take time and urged the public to remain vigilant and continue to follow the precautionary measures over the winter months ahead.

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NHS Vaccine campaign 

The NHS is set to create history by undertaking the biggest immunisation campaign at 50 hospital hubs in the UK. The programme will ramp up further in the coming weeks as the first set of doses arrives from Pfizer’s manufacturing site in Belgium. Since the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine got approval from UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) last week, the NHS workers have been working around the clock to manage the large-scale logistical challenge of rolling out the vaccine.

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The Pfizer/BionTech formula is an mRNA vaccine that uses a tiny fragment of genetic code from the virus to teach the body how to fight Covid-19 and build its immunity.  It is delivered in two doses, 21 days apart and has shown a strong immunity response kicking in seven days after administering the second dose.  The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at -70C before being defrosted and can only be moved four times within that temperature before being used.

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(Image Credits: AP)