Nearly 140,000 people in the United Kingdom have received their first Covid-19 shots in the first week of rollout of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the minister in charge of the programme said, Reuters reports.
The vaccine was approved for emergency use two weeks ago, with rollout commencing on Dec 8, making Britain the first country to deploy the shot outside of clinical trials.
“A really good start to the vaccination program. It’s been seven days and we have done: England: 108,000, Wales: 7,897, Northern Ireland: 4,000, Scotland: 18,000. UK Total 137,897,” Nadhim Zahawi said in a tweet.
People have to receive two doses of the vaccine, 21 days apart, so no one who has received their first dose is yet fully protected.
In all, Britain has ordered 40 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that he expects to receive millions of doses of the vaccine by the end of the year.
