Margaret Keenan received the jab at about 6.45am in Coventry, marking the start of a historic mass vaccination programme.

Up to four million more are expected by the end of the month.

Hubs in the UK will vaccinate over-80s and some health and care staff – the programme aims to protect the most vulnerable and return life to normal.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has dubbed Tuesday V-day, said this simple act of vaccination was “a tribute to scientific endeavour and human ingenuity and to the hard work of so many people.

“Today marks the start of the fightback against our common enemy, the coronavirus,” he said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on a visit to a London hospital to see some of the first people getting the jab, said getting vaccinated was “good for you and good for the whole country”.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Today we should all allow ourselves a smile – but we must not drop our guard.”

At University Hospital, Coventry, matron May Parsons administered the very first jab to Ms Keenan.

“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19,” Ms Keenan, who is originally from Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, said.

“It’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year.

“My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it. If I can have it at 90, then you can have it too,” she added.

Prof Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, who witnessed the “historic moment”, said: “We couldn’t hug her but we could clap and everybody did so in the room.”

The second person vaccinated in Coventry was William Shakespeare, 81, from Warwickshire, who said he was “pleased” to be given the jab and hospital staff had been “wonderful”.

World Opinions News – bbc.com

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