WHAT’S THE LATEST UPDATE?
In spite of the gloom over a third national lockdown in the UK, there is hope on the horizon. This comes in the form of two vaccines against Covid that have been bought by the UK and are currently being rolled out to end the pandemic. It's hoped that over the next few months, millions of UK residents will receive a jab – whether it's the 'easy' Oxford/AstraZeneca one or the more complicated Pfizer/BioNTech one, which needs to be kept at a very low temperature. A third vaccine, the American-developed Moderna one, has also been approved, though doses won't be available until March.
WHAT'S THE STORY?
The UK's vaccination campaign against Covid began on Tuesday 8 December, with a 90-year-old woman being the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer jab. The vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was announced in early November; it was since shown in trials to have 95 per cent efficacy against Covid-19 – better than anyone hoped. The Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine (the one the UK first pinned its hopes on) has also been approved, which is up to 90 per cent efficient, depending on the dose – and this began to be administered from Monday 4 January 2021. Two jabs of each are required.