More than 3.5 million people have received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine in the UK, surpassing the number of people who have tested positive for the virus, according to data from the British government. A total of 3,559,179 people have received the first dose since last Friday, but only 447,261 have had a second dose.
The head of England’s National Health Service told the BBC on Sunday that more than half of those over the age of 80 had had the first dose, and the pace of vaccinations would accelerate in the coming weeks.
“We will start testing 24/7 in some hospitals over the next 10 days, but for now we are vaccinating at a rate of about 140 beats per minute,” Simon Stevens said.
Stevens said someone is admitted to the hospital with the virus every 30 seconds.
The UK has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, with 81,800 deaths.
“Since Christmas Day, we’ve seen another increase of 15,000 people hospitalized in hospitals in England, it’s the equivalent of filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients,” Stevens said.
On Monday, ten mass vaccination sites will open across England as the country’s vaccine deployment accelerates.