A 90-year-old British woman has become the first person in the world to receive Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, BBC News reports. The United Kingdom became the first country in the world to approve the drug last week and began rolling out vaccinations to people over 80 and certain health workers on Tuesday, December 8, with Margaret Keenan from Coventry becoming Patient A.
- Keenan described the vaccine as a great gift. Keenan, who turns 91 next week, got her vaccination at 6:31 a.m. GMT in a room full of reporters and said she considered being able to get the jab “the best early birthday present.” The vaccine was administered by Matron May Parsons.
- She’s looking forward to being able to spend time with her family and friends. Sharing her enthusiasm for the COVID-19 vaccine, Keenan told reporters that she didn’t hesitate to get it as she hopes it will allow her to get back to somewhat of a more normal life in the coming months. “I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19, it’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year.”
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Keenan hopes that everyone who can get the vaccine does so. Thanking the UK’s National Health Service for their hard work during the pandemic, Keenan said: “I can’t thank May and the NHS staff enough who have looked after me tremendously.” She added that everyone should get the vaccine regardless of their skepticism. “My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it – if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too,” she said.
- This was the first of 800,000 doses to be administered in the country. The UK initially ordered 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine but they expect up to four million more doses to arrive in the country by the end of the month.
