90-year-old Margaret Keenan from the U. K. is world's first person to receive the coronavirus vaccine outside of trials

Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old U. K. citizen, has become the first person to receive a dose of the coronavirus vaccine on 7th December.

On Tuesday, 7th December 2020, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan from the United Kingdom became the first person in the world to receive the coronavirus vaccine outside of trials. In a local hospital in Coventry, Central England, Margaret took the jab (as the Briton call it) of the COVID-19 vaccine at 6.30 am U.K. time.

Meet Maggie: the first person in the world to receive a fully-tested and approved Covid-19 vaccine on the NHS. pic.twitter.com/eb2ijTMSLW

— NHS England and NHS Improvement (@NHSEngland) December 8, 2020

Margaret, who is about to turn 91 next week, believes this is the birthday present that she got early. “I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19,” she said. She further added, “It’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year.”

After six weeks of getting emergency approval, the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is being distributed in the nationwide coronavirus immunization campaign in the U. K. Currently, the country has 8,00,000 doses of the vaccine. While this quantity is sufficient to give two doses to 4,00,000 people each, providing the vaccine to the rest of the 68 million people in the country is going to be logistically tough. The vials of the vaccine also have to be stored frozen at minus 70 degrees Celsius (94 degrees Fahrenheit).

The U. K. has more than 1.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases as of now.

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