Doses of the vaccine, approved by UK regulators on December 30, will initially be delivered to “a small number of hospitals during the first few days for surveillance purposes”, before most doses reach practice. doctors later in the week, said England’s National Health Service (NHS).
The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is easier to transport and store than the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, which was approved for use in the UK last month and has to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius, making it easier out-of-hospital delivery. configuration.
Tens of thousands of current and former NHS workers are being trained as vaccinators to support what the health service has described as “the largest vaccination program in its history.”
Brian William Pinker, 82, was the first person to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine Monday morning.
“I am very happy to receive the [Covid-19] today’s vaccine, ”Pinker said after receiving his dose, according to the NHS England Twitter account. He added that he was considered a vulnerable person due to dialysis.
“The vaccine means everything to me, to me it’s the only way to get back to normal life,” he said.
“The very positive news this morning about the Oxford vaccine is starting to unfold: it’s a triumph of British science that we’ve managed to get where we are,” the UK Health Secretary told Sky News on Monday. Matt Hancock.
The launch comes as coronavirus cases in the UK continue to rise. The country has registered more than 50,000 new cases of Covid-19 for six days in a row, with 54,990 new cases registered on Sunday.
“It’s a very difficult situation when it comes to virus growth,” Hancock said. “But we also have this very good news this morning, it’s a really crucial moment with the arrival, actually in UK hospitals, of the Oxford vaccine.”
The release comes after a change in the UK’s vaccination strategy. The government has said it will now prioritize giving the first of a series of two doses of vaccine to as many people as possible, before administering a second dose up to 12 weeks later.
This will apply to both the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine that is already being administered.
The British Medical Association (BMA), a body representing doctors in the UK, has criticized the move to postpone appointments for very vulnerable patients who are currently awaiting their first shots.
But UK medical leaders defended the change in strategy, saying it was a move based on the “risk-benefit balance” and that the “vast majority” of initial protection came from the first blow.
The Oxford University / AstraZeneca vaccine also has the potential to quickly protect millions more people around the world when regulators in other nations grant approval.
AstraZeneca is committed to supplying hundreds of millions of doses to low- and middle-income countries and to delivering the nonprofit vaccine to these nations in perpetuity.
The vaccine is significantly cheaper than others that have been approved, and it would basically be much easier to transport and distribute it to developing countries than its rivals, as it does not need to be stored at freezing temperatures.