UNITED KINGDOM: On Monday, the United Kingdom began rolling out the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The UK started the new drive with around 530,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The country is still struggling to control a severe wave of the pandemic.
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Hopefully, this vaccine will be a game-changer not only for the UK but also for the entire world. The vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is seen as a big change by many experts as it doesn’t require very cold temperatures for storage. This will help the vaccine to be easily accessible to the less wealthy regions of the world. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna require very cold temperatures for their storage. Hence, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine now has an upper hand when compared to the other two vaccines.
Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old was the first person to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine jab at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital. In a statement, Pinker said, “I’m very pleased that I got the Oxford vaccine.” He further added that it was a no-brainer to get the shot.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock is also happy about the roll-out of the vaccine. In a tweet, Hancock said, “Delighted that today we roll out the @UniofOxford / @AstraZeneca vaccine across the whole UK. It’s a vital step in our fight against this pandemic.”
In a statement, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also talked about the vaccine. “We can see the way ahead in terms of a route forward, we can see how we can get out of this. But we do have a tough period ahead,” he said. Till now, the UK has already vaccinated around one million people after approving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in December.
Meanwhile, China is preparing to immunize millions ahead of the Lunar New Year mass travel season in February with a homegrown prophylactic.
