A 24-year-old carer has become the first person in the UK to receive the Moderna vaccine as it becomes the latest jab used in the country’s vaccination programme.
Elle Taylor, from Ammanford in Wales, who is an unpaid carer for her 82-year-old grandmother, received the vaccine this morning.
“I’m very excited and very happy,” she said. “I’m an unpaid carer for my grandmother so it is very important to me that I get it, so I can care for her properly and safely.
“My grandmother has had her first dose and she is going for her second dose on Saturday.”
It has not been confirmed when the rest of the UK will start using the jab, but Scotland got its first batch on Monday.
Like the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs which are already in use, the Moderna jab is given in two doses, several weeks apart.
The UK has purchased 17 million doses of the Moderna jab, enough for 8.5 million people, and phase three results suggest the vaccine has 100% efficacy against severe cases of coronavirus.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was delighted the UK rollout of the Moderna vaccine was starting.
“The UK government has secured vaccines on behalf of the entire nation and the vaccination programme has shown our country working together at its best,” he said.