Covid vaccines arrive in UK hospitals. Check out pictures here
Less than a year after the coronavirus crisis erupted, a massive mobilization to deliver a vaccine is underway in the UK
Britain is preparing to become the first country to vaccinate the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this week. Footage posted by the National Health Service (NHS) showed boxes containing doses of the vaccine being delivered to Croydon University Hospital in south London and being stored in a special, securely locked fridge.
Britain gave emergency use approval for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech last week.
In total, Britain has ordered 40 million doses. As each person requires two doses, that is enough to vaccinate 20 million people in the country of 67 million. About 800,000 doses are expected to be available within the first week.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine needs to be kept at -70C (-94F) and only lasts five days in a regular fridge. For that reason, it will first be administered in 50 hospitals.
NHS England has written to community doctors, telling them to get ready to start giving vaccinations from Dec. 14. Groups of local doctors will operate more than 1,000 vaccination centres across the country, the government said.
Initial doses that have arrived from Belgium are being stored in secure locations across the country, where they will be quality checked, the health ministry said. The rollout coincides with a crucial and perilous moment in negotiations between Britain and the European Union on a post-Brexit trade agreement.
People over the age of 80, care-home staff and health workers who are at highest risk of illness will be first to receive jabs, according to a statement from England’s National Health Service. Eventually, as many as 1,000 vaccination centers, operated by groups of general practitioners, will come online, the government said.
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