Britain ready to roll out Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine this week

By Asianet Newsable English | First Published Dec 6, 2020, 7:50 AM IST

Britain will start administrating the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday with the National Health Service giving top priority to frontline workers, care home staff and residents and those above the age of 80.

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With this, Britain will become the first country to roll out the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

Briefing the media, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "This coming week will be a historic moment as we begin vaccination against COVID-19. We are prioritizing the most vulnerable first and over-80s, care home staff and NHS colleagues will all be among the first to receive the vaccines."

NHS lays out a roadmap

The NHS has said that the first wave of vaccinations will be done at 50 hospital hubs.

In a statement, the NHS said: "People aged 80 and over as well as care home workers will be first to receive the jab, along with NHS workers who are at higher risk."

"Hospitals will also start inviting over-80s to come in for a jab and talk to care home providers to get their staff vaccinated. Any appointments not used for these groups will be used for healthcare workers who are at highest risk of serious illness from COVID."

"Despite the huge complexities, hospitals will kickstart the first phase of the largest scale vaccination campaign in our country's history from Tuesday. The first tranche of vaccine deliveries will be landing at hospitals by Monday in readiness," the statement issued by NHS national medical director Stephen Powis further said.

UK to get 800,000 doses this week

Pfizer had earlier this week said that Britain will receive 800,000 doses of the vaccine in the coming week, which translates into two-shot vaccinations for roughly 400,000 people.

The country has placed an order for nearly 40 million doses, which means it will have enough to vaccinate nearly 20 million out of its population of 66.7 million.

Boxes of the vaccine contain five packs of 975 doses, but accordingto media reports special regulatory approval is needed to split them up.

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