Coronavirus: What you need to know about the UK's Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine rollout

As early as next week, the UK will become the first country to begin mass vaccinating its residents against COVID-19.

The Government approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use on Wednesday in a move that's been hailed as a turning point for humanity. It will be made available across the country from next week.

So far, it's secured 40 million doses of the vaccine. Ten million are due by the end of the year, but 800,000 are due by this weekend.

The British Government and the National Health Service now has to undertake the biggest programme of mass vaccination in the country's history. The first vials packed in special containers will arrive from Pfizer's factory in Belgium this weekend.

First on the priority list to receive the vaccines are those living in care homes, followed by those aged 80 and above and frontline health workers. After those, people aged over 65 can be vaccinated along with anyone deemed clinically vulnerable or those with underlying health conditions. 

This is all set to be completed by around April, but not everyone thinks the Government's got its priorities right.

"Give it to grandkids, not me," one elderly woman said. "I'm old and past it."

Areas are already being prepared to give mass vaccines, such as bowls clubs to football stadiums, but these likely won't be used until next year.

A downside of the Pfizer vaccine is that it must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures of -70C and it cannot be transported easily. Additionally, patients will need two doses.

But the UK has pre-ordered two more vaccines, the Oxford and Moderna vaccines, and they likely aren't far away from approval either.

Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said the vaccine announcement is a "huge moment" for society.

"This is a turning point for the fight against the pandemic now."

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also praised the announcement.

"We have been waiting and hoping for the day when the searchlights of science would pick out our invisible enemy, and give us the power to stop that enemy from making us ill, and now the scientists have done it," he said.

The announcement of the vaccine rollout came the day England came out of its second lockdown and shops reopened in time for Christmas. The UK has recorded more than 1.7 million COVID-19 cases and nearly 60,000 deaths.