UK gets vaccine - 18th December 2020

The UK has taken a big step to stop coronavirus. It is the first country in the world to give the vaccine to the public.

Some of the first people who received the vaccine were at Guy's Hospital in London. British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, watched the historic event. He talked about how everyone needs to receive the vaccine.

Johnson: "One in three people is passing it on without even having any symptoms at all yourself. Do you see what I mean? So you can be a secret spreader of the disease, and I don’t think people have grasped that. And it’s very, very important in the weeks ahead that everybody understands that."

People need two injections of the vaccine. The UK has enough injections for 20 million people. Margaret Keenan is a 90 year old grandmother. She was the first patient to be vaccinated.

Keenan: "At the moment I don't know how I feel. It’s just so, just so strange and so wonderful really. Yes. Anyway, this is for a good cause so I'm so pleased I had it done."

Health workers and people over 80 are going to be vaccinated first. Queen Elizabeth is 94 years old. So, she will probably be one of the first, too.

The UK's vaccine was developed by companies Pfizer and BioNtech. Companies around the world are working on different vaccines. They are trying to end the pandemic as quickly as possible.