UK orders 4 crore COVID-19 vaccines, roll out to begin on Tuesday

LONDON: Amid improvement in the COVID-19 scenario, the United Kingdom (UK) is preparing to become the first country to roll out the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, initially making the shot available at hospitals before distributing stocks to the doctors’ clinics.

Government ordered 40 million jabs – enough to vaccinate 20 million people out of a total population of 67 million in the island nation.

The UK on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use and said that it will be rolled out from next week. Care home residents, health and care staff, the elderly and people who are clinically extremely vulnerable will be first in line to receive the vaccine.

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“The Government has today accepted the recommendation from the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use,” the UK government said in a statement.

For the third day in a row, the US saw a record number of cases, with nearly 230,000 new infections on Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The country has the highest number of cases as well as deaths. Three former Presidents -- Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton have recently announced that they are willing to get inoculated in public view to build confidence in the vaccine after approval by the regulating agency FDA.

Globally, more than 1.5 million people have died due to COVID-19, while 42 million people have recovered from it.

Meanwhile, Russia has reported a record high of 29,039 new cases, taking the national total to 2,460,770 since the pandemic began.

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