The first Oxford vaccine dose has been given in the UK - here’s the plan for the rollout

The rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has begun today (Mon 4 Jan), with the first patient receiving the jab at a hospital in Oxford.

Dialysis patient Brian Pinker is an 82 year old retired maintenance manager, and has become the first person in the world to receive the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine outside of clinical trials.

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Mr Pinker, who describes himself as Oxford born and bred, received the jab at 7:30am on Monday morning, from nurse Sam Foster at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Churchill Hospital.

In a statement issued by NHS England, Mr Pinker said, “I am so pleased to be getting the Covid vaccine today and really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford. The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”

Sam Foster, Chief Nursing Officer at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who administered the vaccine, said, “It was a real privilege to be able to deliver the first Oxford vaccine at the Churchill Hospital here in Oxford, just a few hundred metres from where it was developed.

“We look forward to vaccinating many more patients and health and care staff with the Oxford vaccine in the coming weeks which will make a huge difference to people living in the communities we serve and the staff who care for them in our hospitals.”

Trevor Cowlett, an 88 year old music teacher, was the second person to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, and Professor Andrew Pollard was the third.

Where else will the AstraZeneca vaccine be administered in the UK?

More than half a million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are now ready for use and will be administered throughout the UK.

Around 530,000 doses of the jab are initially being rolled out at six hospital trusts in Oxford, Sussex, Lancashire, Warwickshire, and two in London.

Most of the other doses will then be sent to more than 700 GP-led services and care homes across the UK later this week, according to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

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Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the NHS would be able to deliver two million doses of the coronavirus vaccine per week if it receives enough supplies.

Mr Hancock told BBC Breakfast, “If the NHS needs to go faster, then it will go faster. If there were two million doses a week being delivered, then the NHS would deliver at that speed.

“That’s the critical question, but that supply isn’t there yet, and we are working very closely with the manufacturers.”