The tiny Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean could “become the first island to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19,” the British military said on Friday.
The island – an overseas territory of the United Kingdom – has a population of just over 800 inhabitants.
At least 1,950 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine arrived at Ascension earlier this week on a special support flight from the Royal Air Force.
The team at the island’s Georgetown Hospital began administering the vaccine and the first people to be vaccinated were hospital staff Sylvia Isaac and her husband Mervyn.
In a statement, Ms. Isaac said: “I feel very privileged to be able to receive this vaccine” and that “the vaccination itself was quick and painless”.
“We hope that this vaccine will protect us from the worst effects of COVID-19 and also help to protect family, friends and the rest of the community,” she said.
Given the number of inhabitants that the Ascension Island Government predicts, “the first doses will be administered to everyone who is offered by the end of next week”.
Governor Philip Rushbrook of Ascension said: “I am pleased to be on Ascension right now to see first hand the arrival and distribution of vaccines.”
“I would like to personally thank everyone involved in making this happen.” And he said that vaccine delivery “represents the culmination of a lot of hard work in various UK government departments, the RAF and within the Ascension Island Government.”
Royal Air Force flight officer George Cox, commanding officer in charge, said: “Places like Ascension Island are notoriously difficult to reach.”
The vaccines arrived on an A400M Atlas cargo plane because “the RAF can reach remote locations that commercial aircraft may not necessarily access,” said flying officer Cox.
Where’s the rise? A 33 square mile volcanic island, Ascension, is approximately 1,000 miles off the coast of Africa and 1,400 miles from Brazil. Its closest neighbors are on the island of Santa Helena, 700 miles to the north.
Ascension Island is part of the United Kingdom’s Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha and has its own Constitution, is self-governing and makes its own laws.