A Kiwi grandmother who received her first Covid jab under Britain’s vaccination programme has praised the UK government for hitting its target of vaccinating 15 million people.
Formerly from the Bay of Plenty, Esther Jessop, and her English husband, Jeff, both in their 80s, told 1 NEWS they got their "dose of hope" just a few weeks ago.
“We just slept like babies that night — the first really good sleep that we had for a long time, a long time,” she said.
Jeff added: “Esther said to me when we got home, did we really have it?
“We did and it was like, really access to the beginnings of freedom really.”
Married since 1963, the couple live in an apartment block in Twickenham and opened up about having to postpone their initial Covid-19 jab appointment in January because Jeff tested positive for the disease.
“Esther tested negative a few days after so that’s been a bit of a trial,” Jeff said.
“We hit rock bottom,” Esther added.
A familiar face to Kiwis in London, Esther is the backbone behind United Kingdom’s foremost Māori cultural group, Ngāti Rānana.
The couple have been shielding in their Twickenham apartment and described life under repeated lockdowns and constant restrictions for almost a year as very strange, scary and 'mokemoke’ [lonely], but both are optimistic there is light at the end of the very, very long dark tunnel.
UK government figures just released show 15,062,189 people have now received the first dose of a vaccine.
Since yesterday, a further 258 deaths means the UK death toll is 117,166, with a further 10,972 new cases.
While both Covid deaths and cases are falling rapidly, they always drop over weekends and Mondays due to lag of reporting.
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