UK: Nationwide vaccine roll-out slated for Monday

A staff member of the National Health Service (NHS) claps outside Royal Berkshire Hospital during the weekly "Clap for Our Carers" campaign in Reading, Britain on April 23, 2020. /Tim Ireland/Xinhua

Batches of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine have started arriving at UK hospitals ahead of the jab's nationwide roll-out.

Some 530,000 doses of the treatment will be available for roll-out across the UK from Monday, with vulnerable groups already identified as the priority for immunisation.

The vaccine has been developed in the UK by Oxford University and the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

The roll-out will begin after England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty warned vaccine shortages are likely to cause problems for several months.

He said the UK urgently needs to maximise the number of people who are vaccinated, but added a lack of global supplies will likely hamper efforts to protect the nation in the first part of 2021.

Both the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which has been rolled out from December, require two doses.

(With input from agencies)