Batches of the world’s first coronavirus vaccine are arriving at dozens of UK hospitals as medics prepare to administer the first doses to patients
With the world watching the launch of the immunisation programme, early images from south London show staff “unloading doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab from boxes at Croydon University Hospital before placing them in freezers on the site, Sky News reports.
UK citizens who get the new Coronavirus vaccine will be handed detailed ID cards proving they’ve had the drug.
The Covid-19 passport, which looks like a credit card will be given to patients once they have received the first of two rounds of Pfizer’s record breaking covid-19 vaccine.
Information on the credit card-sized ID items will include the type of vaccine, its batch number and date it was administered.
A bolded-up message reminds patients to note the date of their crucial follow-up dose.
The details plus the patient’s personal information will then be registered on an NHS database.
The first of 50 UK hubs received the medicine on Sunday, December 6, and acording to the NHS, information on the ID cards will include the type of vaccine, its batch number and the date it was given.
All these details including the patient’s personal information, will also be registered on an NHS database.
Croydon University Hospital in south London will make history as the first place to administer the Pfizer vaccine on Monday.
The vaccine has to be stored carefully at below-freezing temperatures.
The vaccination will start with the most vulnerable before other members of the public will rceive their shot.
NHS medical director Stephen Powis said it feels like “the beginning of the end” but warned, “the largest scale vaccination campaign in our country’s history” will be a “marathon, not a sprint”.
The UK is expecting to receive up to four million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by the end of the month.
It is not clear if the new Covid cards will be mandatory or if they will be used as a kind of “immunity passport.”
Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething said the “credit-card sized” token will simply be used to remind people to get a second dose of the jab.
He said:
“These will act as a reminder for a second dose and for the type of vaccine and it will also give information about how to report side effects.”
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove also dismissed the suggestion of an “immunity passport” which would enable people to move around the country.
He told Sky News: “No, that’s not being planned. I certainly am not planning to introduce any vaccine passports and I don’t know anyone else in government who is.”
Yet, UK health minister Nadhim Zahawi said it’s likely that entertainment venues including restaurants and bars will introduce some kind of proof of vaccination system.
He told the BBC: “…I think you’ll probably find that restaurants and bars and cinemas and other venues, sports venues, will probably also use that system.”
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