Drive to vaccinate against virus enters new phases in U. S., U. K.

Americans getting second doses; Britain OKS another vaccine.

The first Americans inoculated against COVID- 19 began rolling up their sleeves for their second and final dose Monday, while Britain introduced another vaccine on the same day it imposed a new nationwide lockdown against the rapidly surging virus.

New York St ate, meanwhile, announced its first known case of the new and seemingly more contagious variant, detected in a man in his 60s in Saratoga Springs. Colorado, California and Florida previously reported cases of the mutant version that has been circulating in England.

The emergence of the variant has added even more urgency to the worldwide race to vaccinate people against the scourge.

In Southern California, Helen Cord ova, an intensive care nurse, got her second dose of the Pfizer vaccine at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center along with other doctors and nurses, baring their arms the prescribed three weeks after they received their first shot at the start of the U.S. vaccination campaign.

“I’m really excited because that means I’m just that much closer to having the immunity and being a little safer when I come to work and, you know, just being around my family,” Cordova said.

Over the weekend, U.S. government officials reported that vaccinations had accelerated significantly.

As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that nearly 4.6 million shots have been dispensed in the U.S ., after a slow and uneven start to the campaign, marked by confusion, logistical hurdles and a patchwork of approaches by state and local authorities.

Britain, meanwhile, became the first nation to start using the COVID- 19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, ramping up its nationwide inoculation campaign amid soaring infection rates blamed on the new variant. Britain’s vaccination program began Dec. 8 with the shot developed by Pfizer and its German partner Biontech.

Brian Pinker, an 82- yearold dialysis patient, received the first Oxford- Astrazeneca shot at Oxford University Hospital, saying in a statement: “I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary.”

The rollout came the same day Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new lockdown for England until at least mid- February. Britain has recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus infections a day over the past six days, and deaths have climbed past 75,000, one of the worst tolls in Europe.

Schools and colleges will generally be closed for faceto- face instruction. Nonessential stores and services like hairdressers will be closed, and restaurants can offer only takeout.

“As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than at any time since the start of the pandemic,” Johnson said.

Elsewhere around the world, France and other parts of Europe have come under fire over slow vaccine rollouts and delays.

France’ s cautious approach appears to have backfired, leaving just a few hundred people vaccinated after the first week and rekindling anger over the government’s handling of the pandemic. The slow rollout has been blamed on mismanagement, staffing shortages over the holidays and a complex consent policy designed to accommodate vaccine skepticism among the French.

“It’s a state scandal,” Jean Rottner, president of t he Grand- Est region of eastern France, said on France- 2 television. “Getting vaccinated is becoming more complicated than buying a car.”