First Moderna vaccines administered in UK

Jabs to be issued in Wales from Wednesday

A box of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is used at a mass vaccination event hosted by Unity Health Care, at Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, USA (EPA)

Patients in Wales will be the first in the UK to receive a dose of the Moderna vaccine on Wednesday, the third type of jab to be rolled out in the UK.

The first doses of the jabs developed by the US biotech firm are set to be administered from the West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen, the Welsh government has said.

An initial round of 5,000 doses of the immunisation were sent to vaccination centres in the Hywel Dda University Health Board area on Tuesday, it added.

The jab followed in the footsteps of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines to become the third approved by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on 8 January.

So far the UK has purchased 17 million doses of the Moderna jab, enough to vaccinate 8.5 million people - around 12 per cent of the UK population.

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Phase three trials of the vaccine found it had a 94.1 per cent efficacy against Covid-19, as well as a 100 per cent efficacy when it came to severe cases of the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Like the Pfizer Biontech jab, the vaccine makes use of developments in mRNA to construct a means of building resistance to the virus by manipulating its genetic code.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said he was “delighted we can start the UK rollout of the Moderna vaccine in west Wales today”.

He added: “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.”

Wales health minister Vaughan Gething said the rollout is “another key milestone in our fight” against coronavirus.

He said: “A third vaccine for use in Wales significantly adds to our defences in the face of coronavirus and will help to protect our most vulnerable.

“Every vaccine given to someone in Wales is a small victory against the virus and we would encourage everyone to go for their vaccine when invited.”

Ros Jervis, director of public health for Hywel Dda University Health Board, said: “We’re delighted to be able to use the Moderna vaccine for deployment across west Wales.

“We will be using this new vaccine, alongside Oxford AstraZeneca, to continue the vaccine rollout to our communities in Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire.

“We are incredibly lucky to have a third vaccine in Wales, with a long shelf life and the ability to be easily transported, to help deliver the vaccination programme to small clinics across our rural communities.”

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said the region’s first batch of Moderna vaccines had arrived in the country on Monday, with the country due to receive more than a million of the doses ordered by the UK

Meanwhile a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said the Moderna vaccine will be rolled out in England “as soon as possible this month”.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Tuesday morning that it would be deployed “around the third week of April”.

It has not been confirmed when the rollout of Moderna will begin in Northern Ireland.

Additional reporting by PA