LONDON, Dec 6: The first doses of a covid vaccine will be administered in the UK on Tuesday, it has been announced. It was reported last week that Pfizer has been given the emergency use authorisation (EUA) by the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) for distribution of its mRNA vaccine in the country this week.

Pfizer's new technolgy vaccine (which can hardly be called a vaccine) becomes the first covid vaccine to be administered ever in the world. The US FDA is expected to give its authorisation on December 10 and to expedite vaccination the US drug distributors and cold storages have already been booked. Next in line to get authorisation will be Moderna's, which is a week behind.

In the UK, according to a statement issued by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the first lot will go to the hospitals, the frontline healthcare workers, for the care home staff and residents, 80+year-olds and to clinics to be run by groups of doctors in local areas with a maximum of 1,000 such vaccine centres. Thereafter, the priority goes by age - the 50 to 80-year-olds will be the second in line and it goes down likewise. The UK has placed an order for 40 million doses to vaccinate 20 million people. Of that, 8,00,000 doses have already arrived from Belgium and distributed to be administered this month. The population is 67 million.

Only Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (both mRNA) need to be stored in deep freezers (cold chain). The former needs minus 70 deg C and the latter 20 deg C. Pfizer's becomes more difficult for transportation and administration (UK and US have the infra). However, it claims that after manually unpacking and defrosting the vaccine can stay safe under a temperature range of 2 to 8 and can be kept in fridges for five days. The boxes of suitcase size each contains 5 packs of 975 doses each (one vaccination is of two doses at weeks' interval).

It is reported by Mail that Queen Elizabeth, 94, and her husband Prince Philip, 99, will be among the first to receive the shot. But the schedule has not been disclosed whether they will take the jab this week or next. And that cannot be delayed as there are a lot of anti-vaxxers running strong campaigns in the UK too. Because the Queen should take the lead by example, apart from being in the priority group age-wise.

Meanwhile, Pfizer has approached the Government of India for permission to sell its vaccine in India after it has got the approval in the UK and Bahrain. It wants to sell it in India without the clinical trial, which is mandatory. It applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use authorisation with a waiver for clinical trials. It is said the DCGI has the discretionary powers to forgo the condition and issue the emergency use authorisation. Especially in the context of the global emergency prevailing as of now due to the uncontrolled devastation the corona is wreaking all around, there is pressure mounting on the DCGI from within India for a waiver to Pfizer.