Friday 11 December 2020

Coronavirus diary, Friday 11 December


After almost. a year of turmoil, the world is welcoming with relief the arrival of life saving, coronavirus-defeating vaccines. And it is the UK that is celebrating being the first nation in the world to start mass vaccination.

The first 800,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine was delivered from Belgium early this week and within days the NHS is already well into the first stage of  its nationwide vaccination programme, the largest ever.

There was no queuing; top priority groups including health workers were called to hospitals and centres to receive their first jabs, with booster injections after three weeks. Eight hundred thousand doses in the first batch with another million more being rushed from Belgium next week. Rushed, literally, as the vaccine needs to be kept at -70C until the last stage. 

Wales’ chief medical officer said that developing the vaccine had been a fantastic achievement.

With the imminent approval of other newly developed vaccines, including that of Oxford University, the trickle of supplies will become a massive flood.

Hundreds of millions of doses around the world, signalling the long hoped for defeat of coronavirus being achieved in a miraculously short time. 

The UK’s achievement in being the front runner is a rare triumph for the government and for our NHS.

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