Unused and empty light protective bag from University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust, supplied by Midco Print and Packaging, of the type used during COVID-19 vaccination work at University Hospital Coventry, England, 2020-2021.

Some COVID-19 vaccines need to be frozen and or refrgierated before use. Advice from manufactuers state that vaccine bottles containing multiple doses must be transported frozen, and then thawed in a fridge at specific temperatures. Advice also included removing the number of bottles needed for a sessio from their outer packaging and placed in a grip lock bag., like this one. Once removed from a fridge, the vaccine must be diluted within two hours and used within 8 hours. To help with timings bags were labelled with times and double checked.

The first vaccine of the United Kingdom’s roll out was on 8 December 2020 administered to then 90 year Margaret Keenan by Matron May Parsons, at University Coventry Hospital. At the start of the roll out, only one vaccine was available – created by Pfizer in collaboration with BioNTech. In less than a year, the vaccine was developed, tested and approved. The United Kingdom through Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on 2 December 2020 the was the first country in the world to approve its use.