LONDON (AP) – Britain took another giant step in the fight against COVID-19 on Monday by stepping up its immunization program by firing the world’s first shots with the vaccine from Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
Dialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, was the first to receive the new vaccine, administered by the chief nurse at Oxford University Hospital. Pinker said he was thrilled and “now really looks forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
Since December 8, the UK’s National Health Service has been using a vaccine made by Pfizer and the German company BioNTech to inoculate health workers, nursing home residents and staff. The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine reinforces that arsenal and is cheaper and easier to use because it doesn’t require the super cold storage required for the Pfizer vaccine.
The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was administered in a small number of UK hospitals for the first few days, so authorities can keep an eye out for any side effects. But hundreds of new vaccination sites – in both hospitals and local doctor’s offices – will be launched this week, in addition to the more than 700 already in operation, NHS England said.
In a shift in practices in the US and elsewhere, Britain now plans to give people a second dose of both vaccines within 12 weeks of the first injection rather than within 21 days, in order to reduce the immunizations of so many people. speed up as quickly as possible.
The government’s deputy chief of medical service, Jonathan Van-Tam, said on Sunday that this decision is “the right thing for the nation as a whole.”
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 75,024, one of the worst in Europe.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Sunday that there are likely to be tougher lockdown restrictions in England in the coming weeks as the country emerges from a coronavirus strain that has pushed infection rates to their highest recorded levels.
Johnson, however, insisted he “had no doubt” that schools are safe and urged parents to return their children to class on Monday in areas of England where the schools plan to reopen. Unions representing teachers have called on schools to distance learning for at least a few weeks more because of the variant, which according to officials is up to 70% more contagious.
“We are fully reconciled to do whatever it takes to get the virus under control, which could mean tougher measures in the coming weeks,” Johnson told the BBC.
Johnson admitted that school closures, curfews and a total ban on household mixing could be on the agenda for areas of the most stress.
London and South East England are facing extremely high numbers of new infections and there is speculation that 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 is using a tiered coronavirus restriction system to stop the spread of the virus. Most of England is already at the top Tier 4 level which means closing non-essential shops, gyms and leisure centers and homeschooling.
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