The UK marked on Wednesday one year since becoming the first country in the world to deploy an approved vaccine against COVID-19, but the anniversary came amid fears that the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus could evade the protection offered by the vaccines
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th December, 2021) The UK marked on Wednesday one year since becoming the first country in the world to deploy an approved vaccine against COVID-19, but the anniversary came amid fears that the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus could evade the protection offered by the vaccines.
On December 8, 2020, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan received a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at University Hospital in Coventry, England, and since then, almost 120 million doses have been administered across the country.
"Since the first jab was delivered one year ago today, our phenomenal vaccine rollout has saved hundreds of thousands of lives and given us the best possible protection against Covid-19," UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.
Johnson, who thanked the Public Health staff, pharmacists, the military, and the thousands of volunteers taking part in the vaccination campaign, as well as the scientists and researchers who developed the vaccines, also cautioned that the fight against the virus "is not over yet", and encouraged people to get a booster dose as soon as they are eligible.
Keenan, who is now 91 and became the first person in the world to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside a clinical trial, also called on her fellow citizens to get the vaccine.
"Please, please do have the jab because it'll save your life and the life of your friends and family," she was quoted as saying by Sky news broadcaster.
As of Tuesday, 81% of the UK population 12 years and older had already received the recommended two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 20.9 million of them had been given a booster shot.
The UK government has extended the COVID-19 booster vaccine to all people aged 18 and over, and shortened to three months the gap between the second dose and the third in an attempt to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant, which scientists fear might be more transmissible than Delta and any other previous strain of the novel coronavirus.
According to the UK Health Security Agency, another 131 cases of the Omicron variant were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the country's total to 568.
