Media reports say the United Kingdom (UK)'s healthcare providers will to start giving the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine today, less than a week after the United Kingdom became the first Western nation to approve a Covid-19 vaccine.
Vaccinations are set to begin in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland said it would start administering the vaccine early in the week but did not specify which day, according to CNN.
The process, which is complicated by the need to store the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine under strict conditions and give each recipient two doses, three weeks apart, will be closely watched from around the world.
50 hospital hubs across England had reportedly already received their allocation of the vaccine.
UK health officials expect to have up to 4 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine available by the end of December.
The United Kingdom has become the first country in the West to approve a COVID-19 vaccine for public use.
The vaccine was developed jointly by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech. Pfizer was the first of three major Western pharmaceutical companies to apply in both the U.S. and Europe for emergency use authorization.
