LONDON (AP) – Britain on Monday took another giant step in the fight against COVID-19, which increases the vaccination program by giving the world the first shots of the vaccine produced by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca was created.
Dialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, received the first vaccine, which was administered by the chief nurse at Oxford Hospital. Pinker said he was so happy and that he “can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
Since December 8, the British National Health Service has been using a vaccine made by Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech to vaccinate health workers and residents and staff in the old age home. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine strengthens the arsenal and is cheaper and easier to use, as it does not require the super-cold storage that the Pfizer vaccine requires.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is being administered to a small number of UK hospitals over the first few days so that the authorities can take note of adverse reactions. But hundreds of new vaccination sites – at both hospitals and local doctor’s offices – will be launched this week and will join the more than 700 already in operation, NHS England said.
In a shift of practices in the US and elsewhere, Britain now plans to give people the second doses of both vaccines within twelve weeks after the first shot rather than within 21 days, in order to accelerate vaccination against as many people as possible.
Deputy government chief Jonathan Van-Tam said on Sunday that the decision was “the right thing to do for the whole country”.
The UK is in the midst of an acute outbreak, and has recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus infections in the past six days. On Sunday, it recorded another 54,990 cases and another 454 virus-related deaths to increase the confirmed number of pandemics to 75,024, one of the worst in Europe.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Sunday that there were likely to be burdensome restrictions on closure in England in the coming weeks, as the country boasted a coronavirus variant that had caused infection rates to rise to their highest recorded levels.
Johnson, however, insisted he “undoubtedly” exists that schools are safe and urged parents to send their children back to the classroom on Monday in areas of England where schools plan to reopen. Trade unions representing teachers have called for schools to devote at least a few weeks to distance education more because of the variant, which according to officials is up to 70% more contagious.
“We are fully reconciled to do what is necessary to bring the virus under control, which may involve stricter measures in the coming weeks,” Johnson told the BBC.
Johnson conceded that the closure of schools, curfew arrangements and the total ban on domestic mixing could be on the agenda for areas with the greatest tension.
London and south-east England are confronted by very high levels of new infections, and there are speculations that the restrictions there should be tightened. Some areas in the region have more than 1,000 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.
Johnson’s Conservative government uses a low-level coronavirus restriction system to stop the spread of the virus. Most of England is already at the highest level 4, which will close non-essential shops, gyms and leisure centers and do homeschooling.
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