An 82-year-old man has become the first patient in the world to receive the new Oxford AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, as the NHS begins rollout across the UK.
Brian Pinker, a retired maintenance manager who has been having dialysis for kidney disease, was vaccinated at Oxford University Hospital at 7:30am on Monday morning.
He said: “I am so pleased to be getting the Covid vaccine today and really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford.
“The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48 wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
Health secretary Matt Hancock said the rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was a “vital step” in the fight against coronavirus.
He tweeted: “Delighted that today we roll out the @UniofOxford / @AstraZeneca vaccine across the whole UK.
“It’s a vital step in our fight against this pandemic. This is a national mission. Thank you to everyone involved.”
Just over half a million doses of the newly approved vaccine will be available from Monday, with vulnerable groups already identified as the priority for immunisation.
Jabs will be delivered at some 730 vaccination sites already established across the UK, with others opening this week to take the total to more than 1,000, according to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The vaccine will be administered at a small number of hospitals in England for the first few days, including at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where it was developed.
Five other hospital trusts – two in London, and others in Sussex, Lancashire and Warwickshire – will also start delivering the vaccine on Monday.
The bulk of supplies will then be sent to hundreds of GP-led services and care homes later in the week for wider rollout, according to DHSC.