Mass COVID-19 vaccination begins for elderly and health care workers

The first people in the UK have started to receive a coronavirus vaccine.

A mass vaccination programme - which involves around 70 hospital hubs across the UK - began on December 8, 2020.

The UK is the first country in the world to start using the Pfizer vaccine after it was approved for safety last week.

A 90-year-old granny called Margaret Keenan from Northern Ireland became the very first person to receive a vaccination against the coronavirus on Tuesday morning.

Heath workers will continue to give the vaccine jab to the over-80s and some health and care staff this week.

Margaret received the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine at University Hospital, Coventry and said she felt "so privileged" to be the first to have it.

NHS matron May Parsons said it was a "huge honour" to be the first in the country to deliver the vaccine to a patient.

"The last few months have been tough for all of us working in the NHS, but now it feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel," she added.

Who will be getting the vaccine next?

Experts have drawn up a priority list for the vaccine roll-out, targeting people at highest risk of becoming seriously ill if they got Covid-19.

Top are care home residents and staff, followed by people aged over 80 and other health and social care workers.

Next will be people over 50, as well as younger people with pre-existing health conditions, as more stocks become available in 2021. It is unlikely children will receive the vaccine.

It is given as two injections, 21 days apart, with the second dose being a booster.

Asked what his message was to people who might have concerns about the jab, Prof Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, said vaccination was "one of the safest forms of medicine" and said the start of the vaccination programme felt "like the beginning of the end".

2020 had been a "dreadful" year but life would get back to "normal" in the coming months, he said.

On social media Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: "Today the first vaccinations in the UK against Covid-19 begin.

"Thank you to our NHS, to all of the scientists who worked so hard to develop this vaccine, to all the volunteers - and to everyone who has been following the rules to protect others. We will beat this together."

First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon said she "got a lump in her throat" watching the jab take place.