More than 130,000 vaccinated in UK in first week

More than 130,000 people have been vaccinated in the first week of the UK's vaccination programme.

Minister Nadhim Zahawi, who is in charge of vaccine rollout, tweeted 137,897 people had been given their first doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech jab between 8 and 15 December.

He described it as a "really good start" for the programme.

The figure only captures the start of the community vaccination programme run by GPs which launched on Monday.

About 200 of these local vaccination clinics are expected to be up and running by the end of the week.

They will be followed by another 1,000 in the coming weeks.

During the first week, more than 70 hospitals took part in the vaccination programme - with another 10 starting this week.

Mr Zahawi said the figures were provisional and from next week there would be published data available.

The breakdown for individual nations showed:

108,000 vaccinated in England

7,897 in Wales

4,000 in Northern Ireland

18,000 in Scotland

"Transparency is vital as we deliver vaccines across the UK," Mr Zahawi added.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "This is just the start and we will steadily expand our vaccination programme - ultimately helping everyone get back to normal life."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55332242

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