COVID: First Vaccines Arrive At British Bases In Cyprus

The first coronavirus vaccines have arrived at the British military bases in Cyprus.

A Royal Air Force Voyager touched down at RAF Akrotiri on Wednesday carrying enough doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for 1,000 people.

They were immediately taken off the aircraft and transported to a special medical storage facility with the rollout to begin soon.

The jabs will be administered in a phased process, with personnel and their families receiving the vaccine at the same time as their corresponding groups in the UK.

People identified within the priority groups will receive the jabs in the first phase of the rollout, which is expected to begin next week.

Earlier this month, the RAF flew 4,000 miles to deliver vaccines to the Ascension Island, a remote UK territory in the South Atlantic – meaning it could become the first whole island to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

In the UK, the Armed Forces' response to COVID-19 has become the biggest-ever homeland military operation in peacetime.