Coronavirus: UK's first COVID-19 vaccine recipients excited to get their shots

A Second World War veteran, a pensioner named William Shakespeare, and a married couple were among the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine recipients in British cities on Tuesday as the country officially started vaccinating its citizens.

"I'm very lucky, really," said WWII veteran Michael Tibbs, reported to be 99-years-old by local media, after receiving the injection at a hospital in the south coast city of Portsmouth.

A pensioner named William Shakespeare was among those who got vaccinated first in the U.K.

The 81-year-old had the injection at University Hospital Coventry on Tuesday, 20 miles from Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of his namesake, England's greatest dramatist and poet.

NHS workers started inoculating the nation's most vulnerable on Tuesday with the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, with the country serving as a test case for the world as it contends with distributing a compound that must be stored at -70C (-94F).

The launch of the vaccine, one of three shots that have reported successful results from large trials, fuels hopes that the world may be turning a corner in the fight against a pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people.

Britain has been the worst-hit country in Europe with over 61,000 deaths.

The country has ordered enough supplies of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot to eventually vaccinate 20 million people. The developers say it was 95% effective in preventing illness in final-stage trials.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/7507647/coronavirus-uk-first-vaccine-patient/

Subscribe to Global News Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/20fcXDc
Like Global News on Facebook HERE: http://bit.ly/255GMJQ
Follow Global News on Twitter HERE: http://bit.ly/1Toz8mt
Follow Global News on Instagram HERE: https://bit.ly/2QZaZIB
#GlobalNews