Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old British dialysis patient, became the first person in the world on Monday to receive the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca out of a clinical trial.
Pinker, who requires dialysis for kidney disease, has been inoculated with the drug at 7.30am (local time) at Churchill Hospital, in the British city of Oxford, by nurse Sam Foster.
The man said he was “grateful” to receive the vaccine and said he was “really proud” that it had been developed in Oxford. “Nurses, doctors and (health) staff have been brilliant today and I can now move forward to celebrate the 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley by the end of the year,” she added, the BBC reports.
The UK is ready to administer more than half a million doses of the Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine during the day. Specifically, British health authorities have 530,000 doses of the vaccine to be administered this Monday at six medical facilities in Oxford, London, Sussex, Lancashire and Warwickshire.
UK Health Minister Matt Hancock has described the milestone as an “essential moment” in the country’s fight against the disease, while saying “difficult weeks” are approaching, although “this is a difficult week”. the way out “.
The UK is in the midst of a substantial increase in new COVID-19 infections, with more than 50,000 registered this Sunday. To date, the country’s health authorities have confirmed more than 2.6 million people have been infected, including more than 75,000 fatalities.
In this regard, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has already pointed out that the Government will “certainly” tighten restrictive measures to curb the spread of the disease.
The ‘premier’ has expressed himself along the same lines as the head of the health portfolio and has predicted that the coming weeks will be “hard, hard”, with more than three quarters of the country’s population below the highest level of ‘alert for the pandemic, the four, which involves the most severe restrictions.
“We have been waiting to see the impact of level four measures on the virus, which, at the moment, is still unclear,” he said. “But if you look at the numbers, there is no doubt that we will have to take tougher measures and they will be announced in due course,” he added.
THE VIRUS OF VIRUS
On the other hand, during the day, Hancock referred to the variant of the coronavirus found in the United Kingdom and noted that it is more “dangerous” and that it is transmitted “much more easily.” “It’s much more contagious. You just need to keep in touch with a small viral load to get infected with the disease,” he explained.
In parallel, he alluded to a variant of the virus discovered in South Africa and pointed out that he is “incredibly concerned” about it, according to the newspaper ‘The Guardian’.