Health

Prue Leith Is Among The First To Receive The Coronavirus Vaccine

The GBBO judge says the jab was "painless."

Prue Leith
Mark Bourdillon/Channel 4

On Dec. 8, the UK began its mass vaccination programme against coronavirus and 91-year-old Margaret Keenan was the first to receive the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine. Since then, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been rolled out across the UK with healthcare workers, people living in care homes, and the elderly being prioritised, and now Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has received the COVID-19 vaccine, becoming one of the first celebrities to do so.

The 80-year-old baker and author took to Twitter to share her experience of being in the first wave of people in the world to be vaccinated. Posting an image of her receiving the jab while wearing a mask, Leith wrote: “Who wouldn't want immunity from COVID-19 with a painless jab??”

Leith, who took over from Mary Berry as the GBBO judge in 2017, said in a video of her receiving the vaccination on Tuesday (Dec.15) that she was supposed to be moving house on Tuesday, but instead headed to the GP surgery as a priority. "I’m thrilled to get it," she said. "They rang me up and asked if I wanted it and I said 'Yes!'"

The star was filmed receiving the vaccine at a centre in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and asked "Have you done it? I didn't even feel it," when it was administered. Leith said afterwards that she "didn’t even feel the jab," adding that the process was "amazing" and "so efficient."

GBBO co-host Noel Fielding responded to the image of his colleague receiving the vaccine, writing on Instagram: “Always the most classy glamorous person in the room. Love you Prue x." Leith’s fellow judge Paul Hollywood added a simple: “Well done Prue x."