London hospital where virus vaccine will be administered

UK health authorities are rolling out the first doses of a widely tested and independently reviewed COVID-19 vaccine, starting a global immunisation program that is expected to gain momentum as more serums win approval. The first shot will come Tuesday at St Thomas's Hospital. The London hospital is one of a network of hubs around the country where the initial phase of the UK program will be rolled out on what has been dubbed “V-Day.”

Medical staff will contact patients to arrange appointments, and most will have to wait until next year before there is enough vaccine to expand the program. The first 800-thousand doses are going to people over 80 who are either hospitalised or already have outpatient appointments scheduled, along with nursing home workers. The UK is getting a head start on the project after British regulators on December 2 gave emergency authorisation to the vaccine produced by US drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech.

US and European Union authorities are also reviewing the vaccine, alongside rival products developed by US biotechnology company Moderna, and a collaboration between Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca. The first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were delivered to a selected group of UK hospitals on Sunday. The vaccine can’t arrive soon enough for the UK, which has more than 61-thousand COVID-19 related deaths - more than any other country has reported in Europe.The UK has had more than 1.7 million coronavirus cases.