The UK health regulator approved the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech on December 2. The country became the first Western nation to approve COVID-19 vaccines outside of trials.

The country said care-home residents and their carers would get first access to the vaccine. The country started giving doses on December 8.

The UK ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, enough to vaccinate 20 million people out of the country's population of roughly 67 million.

The country received 800,000 initial doses, enough for 400,000 people to get vaccinated in the country's first wave, per UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

UK public health officials dubbed the first day of vaccine shots "V-Day."

Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother of four, became the first person in the West to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of trials on Tuesday morning.

"I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19," Keenan told the AP. "I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year."

The first man to receive a vaccine in the UK outside of trials was an Englishman named William Shakespeare. One popular internet comment described the moment as "The Taming of the Flu," a pun on literary great William Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew."

An image showing William Shakespeare, 81, getting the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on December 8, 2020, (L) and an image of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare (R.)

UK health officials said medical staff have contacted people eligible for vaccine doses to arrange appointments.

American infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci initially criticized the UK's "rushed" approval process, but later apologized and said he had faith in the country's regulators.

An independent advisory committee will meet on December 10 to decide whether to recommend the US Food and Drug Administration green light the Pfizer vaccine for emergency authorized use.

A woman has the first of two Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine jabs administered at Guy's Hospital in London.