PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- The United Kingdom is officially rolling out the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Health officials are hopeful as those most vulnerable are the first to get the shots.
Margaret Keenan, a grandmother who turns 91 next week, was given the first dose at 6:31 a.m. Tuesday at University Hospital Coventry, east of Birmingham and about two hours north of London.
“Oh, it was fine. It was fine. I wasn’t nervous at all,” Keenan said in an interview after receiving the vaccine. “If I can do it, so can you.”
She is the first person, outside of a clinical trial, to get the vaccine which was developed by drugmaker Pfizer and Germany-based BioNtech. Her shot kicked off what is being called “V-Day” in the United Kingdom.
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“Finally we have our way through it. Light at the end of the tunnel as so many people are saying,” U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said to Sky News.
“Just watching Margaret there - it seems so simple having a jab in your arm. And it will protect Margaret and it will protect the people around her.”
The first 800,000 doses are going to those 80 and above who are hospitalized or have outpatient appointments already scheduled. Nursing home workers are also getting top priority. U.K. officials are asking for the public’s patience, and to continue mitigation efforts including mask wearing and distancing, as the vaccine is distributed several months into 2021.
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The rollout comes less than a week after the U.K’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) authorized the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use.
Back in the United States, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will be meeting on Thursday to discuss authorization of the vaccine. If the green light is given, the first doses could be given next week.