A 90-year-old woman from Enniskillen has become the first person to receive the Covid-19 vaccine outside of medical trials. Grandmother Margaret Keenan was the first person in the world to be in receipt of the vaccine, as the NHS began its roll-out of its Covid vaccination programme at 6.45am this morning.
Mrs Keenan, who will celebrate her 91st birthday next week, received the Pfizer/BioNTech jab from Nurse May Parsons at her local hospital in Coventry. The Irish woman, who has a daughter, son and four grandchildren, only retired 4 years ago from her job as an assistant in a jewellery store.
The fighting fit granny said, "I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19, it’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year. I can’t thank May and the NHS staff enough who have looked after me tremendously, and my advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it – if I can have it at 90, then you can have it too!"
Mrs Keenan will be given a second jab in 21 days time to give the best cover against the virus.
