WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, 81, IS FIRST BRITISH MAN TO GET COVID SHOT

A 90-year-old grandmother and an 81-year-old man called William Shakespeare have become the first people in Britain to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, and the first in the world to be given the Pfizer/BioNTech jab as part of a national campaign, Bel Frodsham reported for the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) on December 8, 2020.

Former jewelry shop assistant Margaret Keenan received the vaccine at University Hospital in the city of Coventry in central England just after 6:30 am (0630 GMT, 2:30 p.m. on December 8, 2020 in Manila) on Tuesday.

Keenan 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."

The nurse who administered the injection, May Parsons, said it was a "huge honor" to be the first in the country to deliver the vaccine to a patient. The nurse, who was born in the Philippines, said that "now it feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel."

In Northern Ireland, a 28-year-old nurse was reportedly the first person to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Some other countries, including Russia and China, have already started mass vaccination campaigns with their own domestically developed vaccines.