As the United Kingdom kicked off its biggest-ever vaccine campaign in history on Tuesday, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech jab against COVID-19.
At 6:31 am GMT, early riser Maggie was given the life-saving jab by nurse May Parsons, at a local hospital in Coventry, to mark what the National Health Service (NHS) has dubbed a "landmark moment" on V-Day or Vaccine Day, in the fight against the deadly virus.?
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"I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinatedagainst COVID-19, it's the best early birthday present I could wish for becauseit means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friendsin the New Year after being on my own for most of the year," said Maggie,who turns 91 next week.
The former jewellery shop assistant who retired four yearsago, has a daughter, a son and four grandchildren, and is looking forward tobeing able to go out again once she receives the top-up booster dose 21 dayslater.
"I can't thank May and the NHS staff enough who havelooked after me tremendously, and my advice to anyone offered the vaccine is totake it ¨C if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too," she said.
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"It's a huge honour to be the first person in thecountry to deliver a COVID-19 jab to a patient, I'm just glad that I'm able toplay a part in this historic day," said nurse Parsons.
Maggie is among the first set of people contacted in advanceby the NHS for the jab, based on a pre-determined health risk criteria. Among these people is also 87-year-old British-Indian grandfather of nine, Hari Shukla, who willget his first dose at a hospital in Newcastle.
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People aged 80 and over as well as care home workers, will befirst to receive the jab this week, along with NHS workers who are at higherrisk among the first to receive the "life-saving jab."
Since the Pfizer vaccine got the green light from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) last week, the NHS said, its workers have been working around the clock to manage thehuge scale logistical challenge of deploying the vaccine. Over the weekend,hospitals have begun inviting people over 80 in for a jab, and working with care homeproviders to book their staff into vaccination clinics.
"We will look back on today, V-day, as a key moment inour fight back against this terrible disease, and I am proud our healthservices across the United Kingdom are about to embark on our largest evervaccination programme," said UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
"With over-80s and frontline health and care staffreceiving their vaccinations from today, the whole country will breathe acollective sigh of relief as our most vulnerable loved ones start to be givenprotection from the virus."
The Pfizer/BionTech formula is an mRNA vaccine that uses atiny fragment of genetic code from the pandemic virus to teach the body how tofight COVID-19 and build immunity.
"Today is just the first step in the largestvaccination programme this country has ever seen. It will take some months tocomplete the work as more vaccine supplies become available and until then wemust not drop our guard,Ąą said NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens,as he praised everyone involved in the first clinically approved COVID-19vaccination for "achieving in months what normally takes years."
?All Inputs PTI