London – Britain’s healthcare providers are gearing up to begin giving the first dozes of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, less than a week after the United Kingdom became the first Western nation to approve a Covid-19 vaccine.
Vaccinations are set to begin on Tuesday in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland said it would start administering the vaccine early in the week but did not specify which day.
The complicated process, which requires the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be stored under strict conditions and give each recipient two doses, three weeks apart, will be closely watched from around the world.
According to Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, 50 hospital hubs across England had already received their allocation of the vaccine, and that the distribution of the vaccine was “really well underway now”.
UK health officials expect to have up to 4-million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19, available by the end of December, Cordery said.
The government has ordered 40-million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine so far, enough to vaccinate 20-million people, or a third of the UK population. More deaths from Covid-19 have been recorded in the UK than anywhere else in Europe.
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