Covid vaccine: Margaret Keenan receives second dose of Pfizer jab

Spike in Covid cases and inpatients is applying additional pressure to vaccine rollout

Margaret Keenan, the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine outside of a clinical trial, has received her second dose, health authorities have announced.

The 90-year-old grandmother was injected with a first dose on 8 December and returned on Tuesday to  Coventry’s University Hospital for a follow-up “booster jab”.

Ms Keenan will develop full protection against Covid-19 within a week, according to guidance issued by Pfizer.

Professor Andy Hardy, the chief executive of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, said he was "delighted to welcome Margaret Keenan back”.

“Our hardworking staff who have been involved in the vaccination programme have remained in contact with Margaret's family since that day and we are delighted that Margaret has been continuing to recover well at home following her discharge from hospital,” Prof Hardy said.

"It's important that everyone comes forward to get the jab when they are invited to do so and, like other hospitals and GP surgeries across the country, we'll be following the latest expert advice and evidence to invite people to get vaccinated at the time they need it."

Health secretary Matt Hancock tweeted: "Fantastic to see Margaret Keenan receive her second dose of the @Pfizer/@BioNTech_Group £coronavirus vaccine.

"We will get through this pandemic, together.”

The most recent figures published by the Department of Health and Social Care show that a total of 616,933 people in the UK received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine between 8 and 20 December.

But speaking on Christmas Eve, prime minister Boris Johnson said almost 800,000 people had been given their first dose of the two-stage vaccine. It is likely Mr Johnson had more up-to-date figures than the general public. 

Since the initial jabs were given in hospitals, the rollout has widened to GP-led sites and care homes.

A Welsh Government spokesman said people in Wales would begin receiving their second dose of the vaccine from 5 January.

The Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine is meanwhile expected to be approved for use in the UK in the coming days. 

The government intends to have the 25 million people covered by the UK’s priority list vaccinated within the next four months.

If sufficient vaccination can be achieved across these groups, 99 per cent of Covid-19 deaths will be prevented, according to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). 

Separate research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has shown that the current vaccination target will have to be doubled to two million jabs a week to avoid a third wave.

Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, said the ongoing vaccine rollout provides hope that the pandemic will be brought under control in 2021.

"We think that by late spring with vaccine supplies continuing to come on stream we will have been able to offer all vulnerable people across this country Covid vaccination,” he said on Tuesday.

"That perhaps provides the biggest chink of hope for the year ahead.

"But that will only be possible thanks once again to the dedication and the commitment of countless NHS staff - our brilliant GPs, pharmacists, nurses and many many others.

"Therefore now is the right time, I believe, on behalf of the whole country to record our enormous debt of gratitude and our huge thanks."