The UK is about to target the COVID-19 vaccine as shots reach 200,000 a day – Hancock

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is on the verge of immunizing its most vulnerable people against COVID-19 in mid-February and offering a shot to all adults in the autumn, with some 2 million people already received a first dose, his health secretary said. Sunday.

“Over the last week we’ve vaccinated more people than throughout December, so we’re accelerating the launch,” Matt Hancock told BBC TV.

Britain is battling growing infections, but is counting on its hopes of rapid immunization to allow life to begin to return to a certain degree of normalcy in the spring.

Hancock said about 2 million people had already received a first shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

“We’ve now vaccinated about a third of all over eighty, so (we’re making) very, very good progress,” he said.

For the government to meet its target of vaccinating more than 14 million people by mid-February, which includes those over 70, the clinically vulnerable (the elderly or those with pre-existing conditions) and health and care workers. social, has to deliver 2 million shots a week.

The current rate is about 200,000 a day, Hancock said.

Seven mass vaccination centers will open this week that will complement nearly 1,000 surgeons and hospitals that offer shots. Hancock said all adults would be offered a vaccine before the fall.

Queen Elizabeth and her husband Philip, both ninety, have been vaccinated, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday.

SURGENT CASES

A large transmissible variant of the virus is on the rise in Britain and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has imposed a third national shutdown in England to try to curb the pandemic before the most vulnerable are immunized. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have imposed similar measures.

More than 80,000 people in Britain have died in the 28 days following the positive test of COVID-19, the fifth highest official death toll in the world, and more than 3 million people have tested positive.

English medical director Chris Whitty said on Sunday that the country’s national health service in parts of the country was facing “the most difficult situation anyone could remember”.

Hancock did not rule out a tougher closure, saying he will “not speculate” on other restrictions, although he added that the “vast majority” of people meet current standards.