A British man became the first person in the world to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine outside a clinical trial.
Brian Pinker, 82, received the vaccine Monday as the United Kingdom faced more lockdown measures amid a surge in cases. A new strain of the coronavirus from the U.K. — which is thought to be more transmissible, but not more lethal — is also causing concern. More than a dozen other countries, including the United States and Canada, have reported cases of the new variant.
The month of December saw the highest U.S. death toll from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Mass vaccination campaigns are underway in the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union, among other countries and regions.
More than 85.2 million cases of the coronavirus have been recorded worldwide since the start of the pandemic, with more than 1.8 million deaths.
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