An 82-year-old Dialysis patient, Brian Pinker, became the first person in the world to receive the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Pinker is a retired maintenance manager, who received the vaccine on Monday, January 4, at Oxford's Churchill Hospital.
According to a tweet by NHS, Pinker said he was proud of Oxford's achievement. "I'm so pleased to be getting the COVID vaccine today and really proud it is one that was invented in Oxford," he said.
"The nurses, doctors and staff have all been fantastic today and now I can't wait to celebrate my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley before the end of the year," he added.
This news came at a time when the Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock, said that the UK government could impose tighter Coronavirus measures for the entire country. He said that NHS is under "significant pressure" from the fast-rising COVID-19 cases across the UK.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the country is struggling to control the new, fast-spreading Coronavirus variant. On Sunday, January 3, over 50,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were recorded in the UK.
Vaccination in UK
According to reports, over half a million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are ready for use on Monday. Six hospital trusts—in Oxford, London, Lancashire, Sussex, and Warwickshire –are providing the vaccine with 530,000 doses ready for use. Later in the week, most other available doses will be sent to hundreds of GP-led centers and care homes across the country, said the Department of Health and Social Care.
Apart from Pinker, who has needed dialysis for kidney disease at the Churchill Hospital for a number of years, Trevor Cowlett, 88, a music teacher, and Professor Andrew Pollard, a pediatrician working at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, also received the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab.
Chief nurse Sam Foster at Oxford's Churchill Hospital who gave the vaccine shot to the people said that it was a "huge privilege". She also added that every single patient who got the jab over the last couple of weeks had their own personal stories on how vaccines would make a difference.
However, in terms of side-effects, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is proven to be safe with no major side-effects reported throughout the human trials. During the trials, researchers noticed its ability to generate strong antibody and T-cell response for long-term immunity against the novel Coronavirus.
