Dec 16, 2020 - Health

U.K. says it vaccinated more than 130,000 people in first week of program

Fadel Allassan

Boris Johnson. — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson watches as a nurse administers the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 8, 2020 in London. Photo: Frank Augstein - Pool/Getty Images

The U.K. has vaccinated more than 100,000 people with Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine in the first week of its program, according to Nadhim Zahawi, a government minister in charge of vaccine deployment.

The big picture: The U.K. earlier this month became the first Western nation to give emergency approval to a COVID-19 vaccine. A 90-year-old woman from Coventry became the world's first person to get a fully tested, clinically authorized COVID-19 vaccine.

Zahawi described the first week of the program as "a really good start," noting that 108,000 people had received the shot in England, 18,000 in Scotland, 7,897 in Wales and 4,000 in Northern Ireland.
General practitioners and nurses in community clinics will begin vaccinating on Monday, further expanding the country's capacity, according to the BBC.

Worth noting: Pfizer's vaccine requires a second shot to be fully effective, though some immunity has been found to be conferred after the first dose.

Go deeper ... In photos: How the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in 2020

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U.K. says it vaccinated more than 130,000 people in first week of program

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