LONDON (AP) – Britain took another giant step in the fight against COVID-19 on Monday, stepping up its vaccination program by giving the world’s first shots from the vaccine created by Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
The dialysis patient, Brian Pinker, 82, was the first to receive the new vaccine administered by the head nurse at Oxford University Hospital. Pinker said he was so pleased and that he can now “wish to celebrate my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
Since December 8, the UK National Health Service has been using a vaccine made by Pfizer and German firm BioNTech to inoculate healthcare workers and residents and nursing home staff. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine increases this arsenal and is cheaper and easier to use, as it does not require the super-cold storage that the Pfizer vaccine needs.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was being administered in a small number of UK hospitals during the early days so that authorities could monitor for adverse reactions. But hundreds of new vaccination sites, both in hospitals and in local medical offices, will be launched this week, adding to the more than 700 that are already in operation, NHS England said.
In a change of practice in the United States and elsewhere, Britain now plans to give people two doses of both vaccines within 12 weeks of the first vaccine instead of within 21 days, to speed up vaccinations. to as many people as soon as possible.
The government’s deputy medical director, Jonathan Van-Tam, said Sunday that the decision is “the right thing to do for the nation as a whole.”
The UK is in the midst of an acute outbreak, recording more than 50,000 new coronavirus infections a day over the past six days. On Sunday, it recorded 54,990 more cases and 454 more virus-related deaths to reach the confirmed pandemic death toll at 75,024, one of the worst in Europe.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Sunday that there are likely to be heavier blockade restrictions in England in the coming weeks as the country emerges from a variant of the coronavirus that has raised infection rates in the UK. highest levels recorded.
Johnson, however, insisted he has “no doubt” that schools are safe and urged parents to return their children to the classroom on Monday in areas of England where schools plan to reopen. Unions representing teachers have called for schools to resort to remote learning for at least a couple of weeks more due to the variant, which according to officials is up to 70% more contagious.
“We are completely reconciled to do whatever it takes to control the virus, which could lead to tougher measures in the coming weeks,” Johnson told the BBC.
Johnson admitted that school closures, curfews and a total ban on domestic mixing could be on the agenda for the most stressful areas.
London and the south-east of England are facing extremely high levels of new infections and it is speculated that restrictions will have to be tightened there. Some areas of the region have more than 1,000 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people.
The Johnson Conservative government uses a tiered system of coronavirus restrictions to try to stop the spread of the virus. Most of England is already at the highest level of level 4, which involves closing shops, gyms and non-essential leisure centers and going to instruction at home.
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