UK to start rolling out Pfizer-Covid-19 vaccine this week: What to expect

The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine; the first doses will be given on Tuesday.

A week after becoming the first country to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, the United Kingdom will start administering the vaccine this week. UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock called the start of vaccinations against the coronavirus a ‘historic moment’.

US's leading immunologist Anthony Fauci criticised the UK medical regulator Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for rushing through the approval but later clarified his comment. However, UK's regulatory body was firm that only safe and effective vaccines were allowed in the UK. As the first Western country approves mass inoculation, here's all you need to know:

- On Tuesday, the UK’s National Health Service will start administering the first set of doses, giving priority to people over the age of 80, frontline healthcare workers and care home staff.

- The Conservative government in the UK has ordered as many as 40 million doses of the vaccine. These will cover about 20 million people of the 67 million residing in the country. In this week, only 800,000 doses will be available.

- The Health Ministry is still navigating through the challenges of providing the vaccines to residents of care homes due to transportation and storage requirements. The NHS will work with local authorities to make vaccines available in care homes, the ministry said.

- The initial doses of the vaccine have come in from Belgium and are being stored in facilities across the country, according to a report.

- While the UK may be the first country to have a glimpse of what a post-Covid-19 world will look like, it has many challenged to overcome to succeed in the vaccination drive. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires extremely cold storage conditions to be fit for use and it takes time to defrost each vaccine before it can be given to people. The vaccine must be kept at -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees F). According to NHS England, the vaccine can only be moved four times within the cold chain. It is usable only for a few days once it has been defrosted.

- This is why only 50 hospital hubs are initially being prepared to store these vaccinations. Other storage locations will soon be operational, once the first week goes through successfully, according to the health ministry. Groups of local medical professionals will run over 1,000 vaccination centres across the country to undertake the massive immunisation drive.

(With agency inputs)