William Shakespeare, the first man in Britain to receive an approved COVID-19 vaccine, dies at 81

William Shakespeare, the man with a famous name who inspired headline writers across Britain last year when he became the second person in the country to receive a coronavirus vaccine, has died after suffering a stroke, his family said in a statement. He was 81, the Newyork times reports.

Since Mr Shakespeare was vaccinated on Dec. 8 at University Hospital, Coventry, in central England, 57 percent of Britain’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

On Tuesday, people older than 30 in Britain became eligible to receive a vaccine.

In a statement released through the hospital where Mr Shakespeare was vaccinated, his wife of 53 years, Joy, said he had been grateful for becoming one of the first people to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“It was something he was hugely proud of,” she said. “He loved seeing the media coverage and the positive difference he was able to make to the lives of so many.”

“He often talked to people about it and would always encourage everyone to get their vaccine whenever he could,” she said.

Mr Shakespeare died on Thursday at the hospital where he had been vaccinated, and where he had been hospitalized last year after suffering a stroke.

Mr Shakespeare received his first dose shortly after Margaret Keenan, then 90, became the first person in Britain to be vaccinated and the first in the world to receive a clinically authorized, fully tested coronavirus vaccine.

Their vaccinations brought a sense of optimism to Britain: “If I can have it at 90 then you can have it, too!” Ms Keenan said at the time.

At least 127,000 people have died of the coronavirus in Britain, according to a New York Times database, the world’s fifth-highest known death toll.

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