Britain is preparing for a huge vaccination program that the world is paying attention to

“It’s just amazing to know that they are here, and that we are the first in the country and therefore the first in the world to actually receive the vaccine,” said Croydon Health Services NHSTrust. Louise Coughlan, co-chief pharmacist at South of London.

“I’m very proud,” she said, after the trust that runs Croydon University Hospital received the vaccine.

Last week, the UK became the first country to license the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use. Studies have shown that the vaccine is about 95% effective. Vaccinations will begin Tuesday at approximately 50 hospital hubs in the United Kingdom. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will also begin rolling out vaccinations on the same day.

Governments and health agencies around the world monitor the UK vaccination program. This can take months, recording successes and failures, and adjusting your own plans accordingly. The United States hopes to start vaccination later this month. UK regulators are also looking at data on vaccines from US biotechnology companies Moderna and AstraZeneca-Oxford University.

Russia began vaccination of thousands of doctors and teachers with Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine at dozens of centers in Moscow on Saturday. The vaccine was approved in the summer after being tested in just a few dozen people.

The excitement in Britain, the highest in Europe with more than 61,000 virus-related deaths, was clear.

“Despite the complexity, the hospital will begin the first phase of the largest vaccination campaign in our history on Tuesday,” said Professor Stephen Pawis, National Health Director of NHS England. I will.

Patients over the age of 80 who are already outpatients or who are discharged after admission receive the jab first. The hospital will also begin inviting people in their 80s and above for vaccination and work with nursing homes to book staff at vaccination clinics. Unpicked appointments will be provided to healthcare professionals who are considered to be at the highest risk for COVID-19. Everyone who has been vaccinated will need a booster jab after 21 days.

Buckingham Palace refused to comment on speculation that Queen Elizabeth II, 94, and her 99-year-old husband, Prince Phillip, will soon be vaccinated and published. This is a move to reassure those who are nervous about getting vaccinated.

“Our goal is, of course, to protect all members of the population, and of course His Majesty,” Dr. June Rain, CEO of the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, who licensed the vaccine, told the BBC. Told.

The UK has 40 million doses of Pfizer vaccine, which can cover 20 million people. The UK government only vaccinates people over the age of 16, so there are about 55 million people in the UK. The UK has raised 357 million doses of seven vaccine candidates, including 100 million of the much cheaper Oxford vaccines, which are less effective than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

As the first tranche of the vaccine arrived from the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Belgium, it is being checked by a professional medical logistics company to ensure that it is not damaged in transit. This can take up to a day.

Each box containing a vaccine containing 5 packs of 975 doses must be manually opened and unpacked at a specially licensed site. The vaccine will then be available in the hospital.

Providing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is complicated because it must be stored at a very low temperature of about minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit). Fortunately, the vaccine is stable for several days at normal refrigerator temperature, 2-8 degrees Celsius (35.6-46.4 F) and can be stored locally. It will take several hours after thawing the vaccine, but it will take additional time to prepare for the shot.

Public Health England has secured 58 special TwinGuard ultra-low temperature freezers that provide ample storage for approximately 5 million doses. Each non-portable refrigerator holds about 86,000 doses.

Vaccines are not just provided by hospitals. Local doctors’ offices and other local medical centers are on standby to start providing vaccines, and there are a few who will do so in the week of December 14. More medical practices in more parts of the country in December and in the coming months.

There are plans to allow vaccination centers that treat large numbers of patients in sports areas and conference centers, as well as local pharmacies to provide jabs similar to annual flu shots.

Nursing home residents are at the top of the priority list given to the UK government by the Joint Committee on Independent Immunization and Immunization, but will be vaccinated immediately as the 975 dose vaccine pack is not yet split Not possible and very difficult to deliver vaccines to individual nursing homes.

The NHS hopes that authorities will soon approve a safe way to split dose packs so that shots reach nursing homes by the end of December.

In the first phase of the vaccination program, the UK created nine groups on the priority list, up to groups over 50 years old. Overall, up to 99% of people at highest risk of dying from COVID 19 want to be vaccinated in the first stage.

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