Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine begins rollout in the UK

More than 600,000 people in the UK have already received the Pfizer vaccine, which was given approval two weeks before Christmas. During the festive season, the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab was also approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Brian Pinker, 82, became the first person in the world to receive the new vaccine and while this is a glimmer of hope, Professor Chris Whitty has issued a bleak warning.

He tweeted: “The first AZ/Oxford vaccines were given today.

“This is very welcome; congratulations to all involved.

“Vaccines give us a route out in the medium term.

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“The NHS is however under very considerable and rising pressure in the short term.

“We must all follow social distancing for now.”

Professor Anthony Gordon, of Imperial College London, warned: “There is light at the end of the tunnel so I would urge people to hold on for the few more months while the vaccination programme makes that difference and then we can truly get back to normal.

“But we can’t overrun the health service because this will just lead to thousands more deaths.”

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted: “To those arguing winter is always like this in the NHS: you are wrong.

“I faced four serious winter crises as Health Sec and the situation now is off-the-scale worse than any of those.”

The UK has been one of the worst-hit countries in the world following the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

The new year started with 53,285 new Covid cases with another 613 deaths bringing the total number of deaths to more than 75,000.

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Last week, the UK recorded its highest daily cases with a staggering 55,892.

Yesterday, more than 50,000 new cases were recorded in the UK for the sixth day in a row, prompting Labour to call for a third national lockdown across England.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced today the country will go into another lockdown until the end of January to curb the rising number of cases.

She said the rising trend of infections was threatening to put “significant pressure” on NHS services warning hospitals could breach capacity within three to four weeks.

Of the new vaccine, more than half a million doses are now available from today, with tens of millions more to be rollout over the next few weeks.

Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said: “I am delighted that today we are rolling out the Oxford vaccine – a testament to British science.

“This is a pivotal moment in our fight against this awful virus and I hope it provides renewed hope to everybody that the end of this pandemic is in sight.

“Through its vaccine delivery plan the NHS is doing everything it can to vaccinate those most at risk as quickly as possible and we will rapidly accelerate our vaccination programme.

“While the most vulnerable are immunised, I urge everybody to continue following the restrictions so we can keep cases down and protect our loved ones.”

Six hospital trusts – in Oxford, London, Sussex, Lancashire and Warwickshire – have begun administering the vaccine.

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