Filipina nurse May Parsons administers the COVID-19 vaccine to 90-year-old grandmother Margaret Keenan, the world’s first person to receive the coronavirus serum produced by Pfizer-BioNTech outside a clinical trial, on Tuesday, December 8, 2020, in Coventry, central England. Photo by NHS
MANILA, Philippines — The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine given to the 90-year old British woman, who is deemed the first person to get inoculated outside clinical trials, was administered by a Filipina nurse.
In a tweet, the British ambassador to the Philippines and Palau, Daniel Pruce, said Filipina nurse May Parsons administered the vaccine to 90-year old Margaret Keenan.
Pruce thanked Filipino healthcare workers for their “enormous contribution” in the country’s fight against COVID-19.
“A fantastic moment! And great to see that the vaccine is administered by Nurse May Parsons from the Philippines – one of the many thousands of Filipino healthcare workers making such an enormous contribution to the #NHS (National Health Service,” Pruce said in a tweet.
A fantastic moment! And great to see that the vaccine is administered by Nurse May Parsons from the Philippines – one of the many thousands of Filipino healthcare workers making such an enormous contribution to the #NHS https://t.co/t1T5Wy8IzO
— Daniel Pruce 🇬🇧 (@DanielPruce) December 8, 2020
In a report by The Irish Times, Parsons was quoted as saying that it was a “huge honour” to be the first in the country to deliver the vaccine to a patient.
The UK was the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use.
In the Philippines, COVID-19 cases surged to 442,000 as of Tuesday, December 8.
The Department of Health (DOH) said the total COVID-19 cases in the country is now at 442,785—of which 25,325 remain active.
DOH added that there are also 139 new recoveries, bringing the total of those who have recovered from the disease to 408,790. The death toll, meanwhile, stands at 8,670 after the health department logged 98 new fatalities. [ac]