British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (back) watches as a lady named Lyn Wheeler receives a Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine injection at Guy's Hospital in London, Britain, on Dec. 8, 2020. Britain on Tuesday started its large-scale COVID-19 vaccination program, about a week after it became the first Western country to greenlight a COVID-19 vaccine. (Andrew Parsons/10 Downing Street/Handout via Xinhua)

LONDON, Dec. 9  -- Britain on Tuesday started its large-scale COVID-19 vaccination program, about a week after it became the first Western country to greenlight a COVID-19 vaccine.

Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old retired shop clerk from Northern Ireland, was the first to get a dose, and the process was closely watched around the world.

Britain added 12,282 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 1,750,241, according to official figures. Meanwhile, the coronavirus-related deaths in the country rose to 62,033.