Filipina nurse facilitates first COVID-19 vaccine in the UK

A Filipina nurse in the United Kingdom has administered the first vaccination for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

According to a report in The Guardian, May Parsons, a nurse at the University hospital, Coventry, delivered the first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to a 90-year-old woman as the UK's National Health Service launched its vaccine campaign on Tuesday.

Margaret Keenan received the jab at about 6:45 a.m., marking the start of a historic mass vaccination program.

Parsons said it was a “huge honor” to be the first in the UK to deliver the vaccine to a patient.

“I’m just glad that I’m able to play a part in this historic day. The last few months have been tough for all of us working in the NHS, but now it feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Parsons, who has worked in the NHS for 24 years, said.

Meanwhile, Keenan said receiving the vaccine was a “privilege.”

She also expressed gratitude to Parsons and the NHS staff for looking after her “tremendously.”

“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19, 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,” she said.

Vaccines will be administered at 50 hospital hubs in the UK with patients aged 80 and above who are already attending hospital as  an outpatient and those who are being discharged home after a hospital stay first in line to receive it, the report said.

Several million doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in the UK in December. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government hopes to start rolling out the vaccine in care homes before Christmas.

Britain became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use.

Both Pfizer-BioNTech and US biotech firm Moderna have reported preliminary findings of more than 90% effectiveness — an unexpectedly high rate — in trials of their vaccines, which are both based on new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. — RSJ, GMA News