LONDON 9 December 2020: The United Kingdom on Tuesday became the first country to start vaccinating its population against Covid-19 that has killed more than 1.5 million people worldwide and sickened tens of millions more.
The first recipient of the shot was grandmother Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week. She received the shot at University Hospital Coventry yesterday, said reports.
In a landmark moment in the coronavirus pandemic, around 50 hospitals in the UK’s state-run National Health Service started administering the Covid-19 inoculation to people over 80 who are either hospitalised or have outpatient appointments scheduled. Some nursing home workers also received the vaccine. Others will have to wait their turn.
Global coronavirus cases cross 66.85 million
More than 66.85 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1,538,379 have died, according to a Reuters tally published on Tuesday.
With 282,253 deaths and over 14.7 million confirmed cases, the United States tops the list of twenty countries with the highest recorded infections and deaths in the world.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
