Study says Britain needs to vaccinate two million a week to prevent a third wave of COVID-19

(Reuters) – Britain needs to vaccinate two million people a week to prevent a third wave of the coronavirus outbreak, a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has concluded.

The UK has had more than 71,000 coronavirus deaths and recorded more than 2.3 million cases of COVID-19 infections as of late Monday, according to a Reuters account.

“The strictest intervention scenario with level 4 across England and schools closed during January and two million people vaccinated per week is the only scenario we considered that reduces the maximum ICU load below of the levels seen during the first wave, ”the study said.

“If there is no substantial deployment of vaccines, cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths in 2021 may exceed those of 2020.”

An accelerated forecast of two million vaccines a week “is expected to have a much more substantial impact,” bit.ly/3o9l2MJ added. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his scientific advisers have said that a variant of the coronavirus, which could be up to 70% more transmissible, was spreading rapidly in Britain, although it is not believed to be more deadly or cause more serious diseases.

This led to strict measures to restrict social mixing for London and the south-east of England, while plans to lighten sidewalks over Christmas nationwide were drastically reduced or completely undone.

According to media reports over the weekend, the UK will launch the COVID-19 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from 4 January, with its approval by the country’s medical regulator scheduled for a few days.

Earlier this month, the UK became the first country in the world to deploy the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech.

The British government said on Thursday that 600,000 people in the UK have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine since inoculations began.