Brian Pinker, 82, will receive the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Sam Foster at Churchill Hospital in Oxford, UK, on Monday, Jan. 4.
Photographer: Steve Parsons / Pool / AP Photo
Photographer: Steve Parsons / Pool / AP Photo
London (AP) – Britain on Monday took another major step in the fight against COVID-19, ramping up its vaccination program by taking the world’s first shots of the vaccine created by Oxford University and the drug giant AstraZeneca.
Dialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, was the first to receive the new pill, administered by the chief nurse at Oxford University Hospital. Pinker said he was so happy that he can “now look forward very much to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
From December. 8, the British National Health Service has been using a vaccine made by Pfizer and the German company BioNTech to protect health care workers and residents and nursing home workers. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine strengthens that arsenal and is cheaper and easier to use as it does not require the pre-cold storage required by the Pfizer vaccine.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was given at a small number of UK hospitals for the first few days so that authorities could check for any side effects. But hundreds of new vaccination sites – at both hospitals as well as local doctors’ offices – will launch this week, joining the more than 700 already in operation, NHS England said.
Moving from practices in the US and elsewhere, Britain now plans to give people second doses of both vaccines within 12 weeks of first sight rather than within 21 days, in order to speed up vaccinations. over as many people as possible.
Government deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said Sunday that the decision was “the right thing to do for the country as a whole.”
The UK is in the midst of a revolution, recording more than 50,000 new coronavirus infections every day over the past six days. On Sunday, it dropped a further 54,990 cases and 454 more virus-related deaths to bring its death toll spread to 75,024, one of the worst in Europe.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Sunday that locking restrictions are likely to be tighter in England in the coming weeks as the country reels from a variety of coronavirus that has pushed disease rates to the next level. highest rates recorded.
Johnson, however, said he had “no doubt” that schools were safe and urged parents to send their children back to the classroom on Monday in areas of England where schools are expected reopen. Unions representing teachers have asked schools to switch to remote learning for at least two more weeks because of the variance, which officials have said is up to 70% more contagious.
“We are fully committed to what it needs to do to control the virus, which could include tougher measures in the coming weeks,” Johnson told ‘BBC.
Johnson acknowledged that school closures, invitations and a total ban on home mixing could be on the agenda for areas under the greatest pressure.
There are very high rates of new infections in London and the south east of England and there is a growing need for tightening up. In some areas of the region there are more than 1,000 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people.
The Johnson Conservative government is using a serial coronavirus restriction system to try to stop the spread of the virus. Most of England is already at the top Tier 4 level, which includes closing non-essential shops, gyms and leisure centers and going to teach at the house.
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AP transmission of coronavirus pandemic continued at:
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https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak