Britain starts virus jabs as Biden vows 100 mln vaccinations

Britain on Dec. 8 became the first Western country to start mass coronavirus vaccinations, as Joe Biden pledged his administration would inoculate 100 million people in the United States over the first 100 days of his presidency.

Kicking off Britain's "V-Day," Margaret Keenan said she felt "privileged" to be given the injection, the first of millions expected to be administered in the hard-hit country over the coming months.

The Pfizer-BioNTech jab is one of several vaccines bringing hope for an end to the pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people worldwide and ravaged economies.

Frontrunners Pfizer-BioNTech and U.S. biotech firm Moderna have reported efficacy of 95 percent and 94 percent respectively and have given data to regulators.

But Oxford University and AstraZeneca became the first Covid-19 vaccine makers to publish final-stage clinical trial data in a scientific journal.

The study, published in the Lancet medical journal, confirmed that their vaccine works in an average of 70 percent of cases.

But the focus remained on the launch of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.

The second jab in Britain went to a man named William Shakespeare.

The over-80s, care home workers, and at-risk health and social care staff will be at the front of the line for vaccination.

Almost 40 percent of the new cases detected over the last seven days worldwide have been in Europe, the region topping 20 million cases on Dec. 8. But the rate of infection appears to be stabilizing.

Russia, one of Europe's hardest-hit countries in terms of cases, on Saturday began vaccinating high-risk workers with its own jab, Sputnik V, and Beijing has also begun an emergency inoculation campaign with a medicine made in China.

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