LONDON (AP) – The UK became the first country in the world to start using the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and drug company AstraZeneca on Monday, launching a nationwide vaccination program as the UK’s rising infection rates hit. unprecedentedly heavy burden on hospitals.
Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old dialysis patient, received the first injection at Oxford University Hospital at 7:30 am.
“The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife, Shirley, later this year,” Pinker said in a statement from the National Health Service.
The rollout of the new vaccine comes at a critical time for the UK authorities, who are fighting an increase in infections attributed to a new virus variant that authorities say is much more contagious. Scotland imposed a lockdown until the end of January, amid increasing pressure on officials to tighten restrictions across the UK
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said tougher measures are imminent, announced a nationwide speech at 8 p.m. The British Parliament will be recalled on Wednesday.
“If you look at the numbers, there is no doubt that we will have to take tougher measures and will announce them in due course,” Johnson said visiting some of the people who received the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine at the Chase. Farm Hospital in North London. .
The UK is in the midst of an acute outbreak, registering more than 50,000 new coronavirus infections per day in the past six days. On Sunday, it recorded a further 54,990 cases and 454 more virus-related deaths to bring the confirmed pandemic death toll to over 75,000, one of the worst in Europe. Some areas of North East London have infection rates in excess of 1,000 cases per 100,000 people.
Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon says people in Scotland will be legally required to stay at home from Tuesday, except for essential reasons to ease the pressure on hospitals and intensive care units.
Under the new lockdown rules in Scotland, people can play sports, but can only meet another person from another household. School closures are extended until February, except for children of key workers and children under social care.
“I am more concerned about the situation we face now than I have ever been since March last year,” she said
Scotland, which has its own decentralized government, has often imposed tighter restrictions on the coronavirus during the pandemic than those in England.
UK regulators last week allowed emergency use of the Oxford AstraZeneca injection, giving public health officials a second vaccine in their medical arsenal. Britain’s massive vaccination program began on Dec. 8 with the shot developed by New York-based Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
Britain has obtained the rights to 100 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, which is cheaper and easier to use than some of its rivals. In particular, it does not require the super cold storage required for the Pfizer vaccine.
The new vaccine will be administered in a small number of hospitals for the first few days, so authorities can keep an eye out for any side effects. But the NHS said hundreds of new vaccination sites – including local doctor’s offices – will be opened later this week, in addition to the more than 700 vaccination centers already in operation.
A “massive start-up operation” is now underway in the vaccination program, Johnson said. But aspects of Britain’s vaccination plans have sparked controversy.
Both vaccines require two injections and Pfizer recommended that the second dose be given within 21 days of the first. But the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization said authorities should give the first dose of vaccine to as many people as possible, rather than setting aside injections to make sure others get two doses. It has increased the time between doses from 21 days to within 12 weeks.
While two doses are required to fully protect against COVID-19, both provide a high degree of protection after the first dose, the committee said. By prioritizing the first dose, “the short-term benefits of the vaccination program are maximized,” he said.
Stephen Evans, professor of pharmaco-epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said policymakers are being forced to weigh the potential risks of this change against the benefits in the midst of a deadly pandemic.
“We have a crisis situation in the UK with a new variant spreading rapidly, and as has become clear to all by 2020, delays have cost lives,” Evans said. “If the means of doses and people to vaccinate are limited, then vaccinating more people with possibly less efficacy is arguably better than having more complete efficacy in only half.”
In England alone, 23,557 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized on Saturday. While figures for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have not been updated in recent days, it is higher than the UK peak during the first wave of the pandemic.
The government closed non-essential stores in London and parts of South East England before Christmas to try to curb the new variant, but health officials say tougher measures are now needed.
Johnson said there would be “tough, tough” weeks in the fight against COVID-19. More school closures, curfews and a total ban on mixing households could be on the agenda.
Although schools in London are already closed due to high contamination rates in the capital, students in many parts of the country returned to personal classes Monday after the Christmas holidays. However, unions representing teachers have called for schools across England to be closed for at least two weeks, shifting classes to distance learning.
Professor Andrew Pollard, one of the scientists who led the development of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, received his injection on Monday.
“It was an incredibly proud moment for me to have received the actual vaccine that the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca teams have worked so hard to make available to the UK and the world,” he said.
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Associated Press Writer Sylvia Hui contributed
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