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Oxford / London (dpa) - Great Britain is now using two vaccines in the fight against the spread of the corona pandemic.
On Monday, the 82-year-old dialysis patient Brian Pinker from Oxford was the first to be vaccinated in the local university clinic with the domestic vaccine from the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca, as the British health service NHS announced.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of “hard, hard” weeks.
There is no question that “in due course” even stricter corona restrictions will have to be introduced, said Johnson when visiting a clinic in London.
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However, calls for tougher measures are already getting louder.
Great Britain is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in Europe.
Most recently, the number of new infections skyrocketed to tens of thousands of cases per day.
The number of patients being treated in clinics has recently increased dramatically.
The UK is particularly hoping for the effects of mass vaccination.
The vaccine from the Mainz company Biontech and the US company Pfizer has been used for four weeks.
Last week, Great Britain also granted the Astrazeneca preparation an emergency approval.
Johnson observed the vaccination of nurse Susan Cole in London.
"He asked me how I felt," said the 60-year-old from the PA news agency.
"We talked a little about how important vaccination is not only for humans, but also to protect others."
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In Oxford, the patient Pinker said he was happy to have received the dose.
"I'm so happy to get the Covid-19 vaccination today and I'm really proud that it was invented in Oxford," he said, according to the NHS announcement.
British Health Minister Matt Hancock described the start of vaccination with the agent as an "indispensable step" in the fight against the pandemic.
The second corona vaccine that is used in the country has one major advantage: the agent from Oxford can be stored at refrigerator temperatures, which significantly simplifies logistics.
At the beginning, the country will have a good half a million doses available, which will be injected in hundreds of hospitals and doctors' offices from this week onwards.
The vaccine is not yet approved in the EU.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210104-99-894320 / 2
Tweet from NHS England