Nicola Sturgeon has said that she has "a bit of a lump in the throat" after the first Covid-19 vaccination was administered today in the UK.
The NHS has become the first health service in the world to begin rolling out Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.
It is the largest-scale immunisation programme in the UK's history and comes as a much-needed boost amid the festive period.
Grandmother Margaret Keenan, 90, received the jab at about 6.45am in Coventry on Tuesday, marking the start of a historic mass vaccination programme.
READ MORE: Covid vaccine: Who gets it first in Scotland and how does it work?
The First Minister tweeted: "Got a bit of a lump in the throat watching this. Feels like such a milestone moment after a tough year for everyone. The first vaccines in Scotland will be administered today too."
Got a bit of a lump in the throat watching this. Feels like such a milestone moment after a tough year for everyone.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 8, 2020
The first vaccines in Scotland will be administered today too. https://t.co/KKaEhf19Jo
Mrs 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.
“I can’t thank May and the NHS staff enough who have looked after me tremendously, and my advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it – if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too.”
The country is expected to receive 8.2% of the 800,000 doses (just over 65,500) in the first delivery secured by the UK, and more is expected to come in the weeks ahead.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel