The United Kingdom marked on Tuesday a year anniversary of deploying the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Oxford University and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca amid a new wave of the pandemic triggered by the latest Omicron variant
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th January, 2022) The United Kingdom marked on Tuesday a year anniversary of deploying the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Oxford University and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca amid a new wave of the pandemic triggered by the latest Omicron variant.
On January 4, 2021, dialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, became the first person to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and since then around 50 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in the country, the UK government said in a statement.
"Backed by government funding, the UK-made Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has played an absolutely crucial role in our fight against COVID-19, saving countless lives in the UK and around the world," health minister Sajid Javid, who is expected to visit a London vaccination center later today to mark the occasion, was quoted as saying.
Javid also used his message to remind people who are eligible for a vaccine or booster jab but have not yet had one, to come forward and do so in order to be protected against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.
"The UK's vaccination and booster programme is world leading but with the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, it is more important than ever that people come forward for their vaccines and booster to top up your immunity this winter and protect the progress we have made," he said.
According to the statement, the UK government invested more than �88 million ($119 million) in supporting the research, development and manufacture of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and secured early access to almost 340 million doses of other vaccines, including Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which are being administered in the UK as part of the vaccination campaign.
