UK starts mass vaccination, stirs hope in anti-virus war

90-year-old grandmom becomes world’s first person to receive a fully tested vaccine; UAE sees 1,260 new virus cases, 2 deaths and 584 recoveries; COVID-19 death rate in UAE still the lowest in the world, says official.

Margaret Keenan, 90, is applauded after she received the first COVID-19 vaccine in Coventry, Britain, on Tuesday. Reuters

A 90-year-old grandmother became the world’s first person to receive a fully-tested COVID-19 shot on Tuesday, as Britain began mass-vaccinating its people in a global drive that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history.

Health workers started inoculating the most vulnerable with the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, with the country a test case for the world as it contends with distributing a compound that must be stored at -70C (-94F).

Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 in a week, was the first to receive the shot, at a hospital in Coventry, central England Pfizer got another boost when the US regulator’s staff raised no new safety or efficacy issues.

The launch of the vaccine, one of three shots that have reported successful results from large trials, will stir hope that the world may be turning a corner in the fight against a pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people.

Britain, the worst-hit in Europe with over 61,000 deaths, is the first Western nation to begin mass vaccinations and the first globally to administer the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.