London: Britain’s senior citizen Margaret Keenan (90) take first Covid-19 vaccine in the world on Tuesday. At the time of vaccination, she said she felt “privileged” to be given the injection, the first of millions expected to be administered in the hard-hit country over the coming months.

Britain became the first Western country to start a mass Covid- 19 vaccine campaign on Tuesday with a 90-year-old receiving the initial jab, as the number of cases in Europe hit 20 million. The Pfizer-BioNTech jab is one of several vaccines bringing hope for an end to the pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people worldwide and ravaged economies.

Keenan in her message said that “My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it,” wearing a mask and a penguin T-shirt. “If I can have it at 90 then you can have it too.”

The UK’s second jab reportedly went to a man named William Shakespeare. The over-80s care home workers, and at-risk health and social care staff will be at the front of the line. Almost 40 percent of the new cases detected over the last seven days worldwide have been in Europe, the region topping 20 million cases on Tuesday. But the rate of infection appears to be stabilising.

Russia, one of Europe’s hardest-hit countries in terms of cases, began vaccinating high-risk workers with its own jab on Saturday, and Beijing has also begun an emergency inoculation campaign with a medicine made in China. And the World Health Organization has warned that successful vaccines on their own will not immediately end the crisis.