London (Web Desk): British health authorities on Tuesday began rolling out the first doses of a widely tested and independently reviewed Covid-19 vaccine.
Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old, become the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine outside of a trial following its rapid clinical approval.
Public health officials are asking the public to be patient because only those who are most at risk from Covid-19 will be vaccinated in the early stages.
Keenan says she feels “so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19".
On Saturday, Russia began vaccinating thousands of doctors, teachers and others at dozens of centres in Moscow with its Sputnik V vaccine. That programme is being viewed differently because Russia authorised use of Sputnik V last summer after it was tested in only a few dozen people.
The first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were delivered to a selected group of UK hospitals on Sunday.