90-Year-Old Woman, Margaret Keenan Becomes First In UK To Receive Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine

By Edna Wande On Dec 8, 2020

90 year old Margaret Keenan, the first patient in the UK to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. — Margaret Keenan, known to family and friends as Maggie, received the jab at 6.31am from nurse May Parsons at her local hospital in Coventry (AP).

A 90-year-old woman named Margaret Keenan has on Tuesday, December 8 become the first person in the United Kingdom and in the world to receive Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine outside trial conditions.

The grandmother, who is from Northern Ireland, received the inoculation at about 6.30am at University Hospital in Coventry, marking the start of the UK’s historic mass vaccination programme.

UK’s National Health Service is also the first in the world to begin rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, which proved to be 95 per cent effective in trials.

May Parsons, a nurse at Ms Keenan’s local hospital in Coventry, administered the vaccine.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was approved by UK authorities last week and is set to be given to over 40 million Britons in a programmed roll-out.

Ms Keenan, who turns 91 next week, is a former jewellery shop assistant who only retired four years ago. She has a daughter, a son and four grandchildren.

Speaking about the historic moment, 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.

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.

NHS England chief executive, Sir Simon Stevens called the new vaccine programme a “remarkable achievement”.

He said;

Less than a year after the first case of this new disease was diagnosed, the NHS has now delivered the first clinically approved Covid-19 vaccination – that is a remarkable achievement.

A heartfelt thank you goes to everyone who has made this a reality – the scientists and doctors who worked tirelessly, and the volunteers who selflessly took part in the trials. They have achieved in months what normally takes years.

My colleagues across the health service are rightly proud of this historic moment as we lead in deploying the PfizerBioNTech vaccine.

He added;

I also want to thank Margaret, our first patient to receive the vaccine on the NHS.

Today is just the first step in the largest vaccination programme this country has ever seen. It will take some months to complete the work as more vaccine supplies become available and until then we must not drop our guard. But if we all stay vigilant in the weeks and months ahead, we will be able to look back at this as a decisive turning point in the battle against the virus.

Ms Parsons, the NHS nurse, said it was a “huge honour” to be the first in the country to deliver the vaccine to a patient.

The phased vaccination programme will see patients aged 80 and above who are already attending hospital as an outpatient, and those who are being discharged home after a hospital stay, among the first to receive the life-saving jab.

Health chiefs have set out how they will deliver the mammoth task ahead, using hospital hubs, vaccination centres and other community locations as well as GP practices and pharmacies.