17 Dec

The British government says more than 130,000 people in the country received coronavirus vaccine shots in one week.

Britain began rolling out vaccines, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, on December 8.

The government announced on Wednesday that 137,897 people were inoculated in the week through Tuesday, mostly senior citizens aged 80 or older, caregivers at facilities for the elderly and frontline medical workers.

The vaccines must be kept at temperatures of around minus 70 degrees Celsius. 

Injections began only at sufficiently-equipped hospitals, but they've been made available at local clinics and some elderly facilities since the start of this week.

Those who receive injections must get a follow-up shot three weeks later.

Regulators in the country are currently evaluating another vaccine developed by British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which is likely to be approved before the year-end.

NHK