BREAKING NEWS: Margaret Keenan, The First Recipient Of the COVID-19 Vaccine In The UK

Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, said it was the “best early birthday present”.

She was given the injection at 06:31 GMT – the first of 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that will be given in the coming weeks.

Matron May Parsons administered Ms Keenan’s vaccine at University Hospital in Coventry.

Ms Keenan, who is originally from Enniskillen, said: “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.”

The first COVID-19 vaccine recipient Margaret Keenan

“I can’t thank May and the NHS staff enough who have looked after me tremendously, and 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 said.

In a NBC Dateline Interview, The chairman of Pfizer said it’s not clear whether people who have taken the company’s coronavirus vaccine will still be able to spread the virus to other people.

Albert Bourla told NBC’s “Dateline” that more studies had to be done into whether someone who had been vaccines could still transmit the coronavirus.

Host Lester Holt asked Bourla: “Even though I’ve had the protection, am I still able to transmit it to other people?”

Bourla then responded: “I think this is something that needs to be examined. We are not certain about that right now with what we know.”

Dr. Hilary Jones said the vaccine dose not stop you from catching or even spreading the virus but it should lessen the symptoms of the virus.

Source: Yahoo News: Researchers who were not involved in the vaccine’s development already highlighted how the company’s trials – and those run by other companies producing coronavirus vaccines – did not assess whether the vaccine affects how the virus spreads.

It raises the possibility that vaccinated people could still pass the disease to others.