Think of others, get COVID shot: UK's Queen

The monarch and her 99 year-old husband Prince Philip, who is currently in hospital with a non-COVID infection, received their shots from a household doctor at the Queen’s Windsor Castle residence.

"Once you've had a vaccine you have a feeling of you know, you're protected which I think is very important and as far as I could make out it was quite harmless," the Queen said in a video call with health officials overseeing inoculations across the four nations of the United Kingdom.

"It was very quick, and I’ve had lots of letters from people who have been very surprised by how easy it was to get the vaccine. And the jab – it didn’t hurt at all," she added, likening the virus to a plague.

More than 18.6 million Britons have already received their first COVID-19 vaccine injection, and celebrities including singer Elton John and actor Michael Caine have joined campaigns encouraging people to take up offers to have the shot.

"It is obviously difficult for people if they've never had a vaccine because they ought to think about other people other than themselves," said the monarch, who described Britain's rollout of the vaccination, one of the fastest in the world, as "remarkable".