(Adds details, background)
LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - Half of all adults in Britain
have now received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, becoming
the world's first major economy to hit that milestone.
Health minister Matt Hancock said on Twitter the figure had
been reached after a record 660,276 shots were administered on
Friday.
Israel is the leader in vaccinating its population, followed
by the United Arab Emirates, Chile and then the United Kingdom -
and investors are watching closely to see which economies could
recover first.
"The vaccine is a national success story and our way out of
this pandemic," said Hancock, adding that he was "delighted".
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson got his first vaccine
dose on Friday, receiving AstraZeneca's shot - which
several European countries had temporarily stopped using earlier
this week over safety fears.
Distributed by the state-run health service, Britain's
vaccine roll-out has got off to a blistering start but the
government has warned this week of a marked slowdown in April
due to a delay of a shipment from India's Serum Institute and
because a batch in the UK needed to be retested.
Britain has so far relied on vaccines from AstraZeneca and
Oxford University, and Pfizer and BioNTech.
(Reporting by Sarah Young;
Editing by Alexander Smith and Helen Popper)