Historic leap in the fight against Covid-19 as 90 year old woman becomes first to receive the vaccine

Historic leap in the fight against Covid-19 as 90 year old woman becomes first to receive the vaccine

The fight against COVID-19 has taken a historic leap after the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was administered to someone outside a clinical trial for the first time.

Grandmother-of-four, Margaret Keenan, 90, has become the first person in the world to receive the jab as part of a vaccination programme.

Jabs will be administered at dozens of hospital hubs across the country from Tuesday – dubbed “V-Day” by the health secretary, Matt Hancock.

Mrs Keenan, who has lived in Coventry for six decades, but is originally from Eniniskillen, Northern Ireland, was given the vaccine this morning by nurse May Parsons at the city’s University Hospital at 6.31am, the first of 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that will be given in the coming weeks.

She 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”.

She thanked Mrs Parsons and other NHS staff for looking after her “tremendously”.

She added:

“My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it – if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too!”