The first Swindon patient received the Covid vaccine at Great Western Hospital this morning - and urged others to do the same.  

Alex Hale, 86, is among the first people in the world to be given the Pfizer Covid jab.  

The Shrivenham pensioner told the Adver shortly after getting his shot: “I’m doing absolutely fine.  

“I wasn’t stressed or anxious. The only stress I had was to get in here on time. 

“I’m looking forward to everybody else having the same thing, so we can go back to normal, as I say it’s not going to be before easter, but I hope shortly after easter. 

“Hopefully everybody will get done very quickly.” 

Alex said he could not believe it when he received a call yesterday morning from the hospital.  

He added: “I’m quite healthy, so I couldn’t understand why I was in the queue this early.” 

Alex received the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine from nurse Amanda Pollitt. 

Amanda said: “It’s exciting, I feel proud and privileged to be part of this whole process.  

“It’s quite nerve-wracking and as we go forward, we’ll feel a bit more relaxed. 

“I was waiting for this moment with anticipation, and excitement. Everybody in our team has worked really hard to bring this all together.  

She added: “There’s an extensive training online, and face-to-face training in addition to being an experienced vaccinator myself.” 

The Swindon’s hospital is one of the 50 hubs in the first wave of the roll out of the vaccine. 

Medical director Charlotte Forsyth told the Adver: “It’s incredibly exciting that we managed to get to this stage and we’re going to be able to give the vaccine to the residents of Swindon.  

“My hopes are that this would start allowing us to get back to a level of normality, so that we can start to do the things that we all missed.  

“But I think that we have to be careful. We must continue with our hand washing, our face covering and social distancing.” 

Charlotte said they will be able to vaccinate between 160 and 200 people a day, which is about 2,000 patients before the end of the year.