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Over 600,000 people in Britain get first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine jab

WION Web Team
London, London, UK (Great Britain)Updated: Dec 25, 2020, 08:31 AM IST
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Photograph:(Reuters)

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Earlier this month, the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to roll out the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech.

More than 600,000 people in the United Kingdom have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine since inoculations began in the country.

Earlier this month, the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to roll out the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech.

"The government has today published figures which show the number of people who have received the vaccine between 8 December and 20 December in the UK is 616,933," the Department of Health and Social Care said in a statement Thursday.

Britain has so far ordered 40 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that he expects to receive millions of doses by the end of the year.

Vaccines have been administered to care home residents, those aged 80 and over and health and social care staff through over 500 vaccination sites.

A new variant of the coronavirus has been spreading rapidly in Britain recently with huge swathes of England being placed under its strictest COVID-19 restrictions.

The variant known as the B.1.1.7 lineage may be up to 70% more infectious and more of a concern for children. It has sown chaos in Britain, prompting a wave of travel bans that are disrupting trade with Europe and threatening to further isolate the island country.