AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine

The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine is set to be rolled out to patients at a “small number” of hospitals in Britain at the same time on Monday, health chiefs have said.

Two hospital trusts in London, as well as one in southern England, one in northern England, one in the Midlands and one in Oxford, where the vaccine was co-developed, will be the first to give the jab.

The vaccine, which was approved by Britain’s regulatory body, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), for emergency use on Wednesday, will eventually be given at more than 700 vaccination sites, the National Health Service (NHS) England said.

Current and former NHS staff have applied to become vaccinators, and tens of thousands have already completed their online training, the health body added.

It will give doctors, who work outside of hospitals an extra 10 pounds ($13) for every care home resident whom they vaccinate by the end of the month.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was approved for emergency use on Dec. 2, with Grandmother Margaret Keenan, being the first person to be vaccinated on Dec. 8.

A total of 750,000 doses of the vaccine had been administered to elderly and vulnerable Britons by the final week of 2020.