The United Kingdom has become the first Western country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, with its approval this week of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The MHRA, the UK’s medicines regulator, has given the vaccine the green light to be rolled out nationwide, with 800,000 doses expected to be available within the coming days.
The first to receive the vaccine will be elderly people in care homes and care home staff, followed by people over 80 years of age and healthcare staff.