Coronavirus: 10 million adults in the UK now fully vaccinated against Covid with two doses
Matt Hancock confirms booster Covid vaccines will be rolled out this autumn as he hails milestone of fully jabbing 10MILLION Britons and insists No10’s lockdown-easing plan is still on track despite threat of variants
- Another 221,193 people got their second vaccine doses yesterday in the UK
- Rollout now focused on getting booster jabs to people in vulnerable groups
- Matt Hancock said it’s ‘crucial’ for people to get second doses for full protection
- He said UK on track to hit its target to offer all adults a vaccine by the end of July
Matt Hancock today confirmed the UK will have a booster vaccination programme later this year as he announced 10million people have now had second doses.
The Health Secretary hailed the ‘terrific milestone’ today after another 221,193 people got their booster jabs on Sunday, taking the total to 10,152,039.
It means almost one in five adults in Britain have the best available protection against Covid, with almost all of the country’s most vulnerable people now covered.
A total of 32.9million people have had their first dose of a vaccine, meaning well over half of the adult population have at least some protection.
Experts estimate the jabs have already saved 10,000 people’s lives while the country’s three-month lockdown brought down case rates and hospital admissions.
Mr Hancock said uptake of the jab so far has been ‘astonishingly high’ and that the country remains on track to offer a first jab to all adults by the end of July. It also remains on track, he said, to come out of lockdown in June.
He said new variants of the virus were the biggest threat to Britain’s newfound security. The booster rollout, expected to come in the autumn, will offer people a third jab that tackles strains like the South African one which may weaken the original vaccines.
Everyone over the age of 50 has been offered a vaccine already, with the NHS now targeting those in their late 40s for the limited supply of first doses available this month.
Supply problems and a huge surge in demand for boosters means that the number of first-timers coming forward is a fraction of what it was in March, but the rollout is still reaching almost half a million people every day, most of them for second doses.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said today that vaccine uptake so far has been ‘astonishingly high’ and that Britain remains on target to offer a jab to all adults by the end of July
Another 221,193 people got their booster jabs on Sunday, taking the total to 10,152,039. A total of 32.8million people have had their first dose of a vaccine
People getting their second vaccine doses now are mostly those who got their first in mid-to-late January – people aged 70 or above and others in the high risk groups.
Mr Hancock said in Parliament that three quarters of over-75s have had a vaccine as well as four fifths of over-80s.
He said the Government is ‘ramping up plans for a booster shot to make sure our vaccines stay ahead of the virus’.
AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna are known to already be working on updated vaccines that are tweaked so they can tackle mutated variants.
All the current jabs are based on the original version of the virus but newer variants look different and therefore require slightly different-shaped immune cells. The current jabs still work but are less effective against these strains.
Mr Hancock said: ‘We’ve already procured enough vaccine doses to begin the booster shots later this year.
‘We will be working with our current vaccine suppliers and new suppliers, like the CureVac partnership, to work out which vaccines will be effective as a booster shot and to design new vaccines specifically targeted at the variants of concern – like the variant first found in South Africa.
‘Our goal is to ensure the vaccine protects against this dreadful disease, whatever it throws at us, to keep us safe and to protect our much-cherished return to normal way of life.’
It is not yet clear when the second rollout will take place, nor whether it will include all adults or just those in the clinically vulnerable groups.
Praising the current programme, Mr Hancock said the NHS had given out record numbers of second doses on Friday and Saturday, doing a combined 999,000.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said today: ‘Vaccines offer us the best possible protection from the virus, so it is fantastic that 10million people have now received their second dose.
‘This is another remarkable milestone in our vaccination programme, which has already saved thousands of lives.
‘I want to thank the brilliant staff and volunteers involved in the rollout, and urge all those who are called to keep coming forward.’
The Health Secretary said that, despite the threat of new variants – one from India has now been found to be spreading in England – the country is still on track to shake off its social distancing laws in June, as planned.
He said: ‘This virus is diminished but not defeated. Cases, hospitalisations and deaths are back to the levels we saw in September.
‘Throughout the crisis we’ve protected the NHS and there are now 2,186 people in hospital with Covid across the UK, down 94 per cent from the peak. And the average number of daily deaths is 25, down 98 per cent…
‘Step by step we are returning this country towards normal life and we are on track to meet the road map set out by the Prime Minister.’
The next step on the roadmap is one month away, set for May 17 at the earliest, when indoor gatherings will be allowed as well as large groups outdoors. Indoor entertainment venues will be able to reopen and international travel may be permitted.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said everyone coming forward for their second dose was ‘crucial’ to make sure their protection from the disease is long-lasting (Pictured: A man gets vaccinated in Reading)
The thing most likely to throw the lockdown-easing plans off course, Mr Hancock said, was a variant that prevented vaccines working properly.
Most concerning is the South African strain, of which there have been 600 cases confirmed by Public Health England. This is both spreading inside the country and being brought in by travellers, and surge testing is being done to weed it out.
The newest worrying variant is one that was first seen in India.
Analysis of publicly available information on new variant numbers on Saturday suggest cases have risen to 160, suggesting it’s spreading rapidly in the community.
PHE currently lists it as a ‘variant under investigation’, a tier below other troublesome strains including the Kent, South African and Brazilian variants.
Indian officials claimed the variant had formed as a hybrid of two other strains and that it showed signs of being more infectious and less easily targeted by the immune system.
Two key mutations set it apart from others – named E484Q and L452R – with both of them found on the ‘spike’ that the virus uses to latch onto human cells.
These are not thought to be key mutations of any of the other variants on Public Health England’s list, but have appeared in virus samples before.
Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, said today: ‘This is another significant milestone and major achievement for the NHS vaccination programme, the biggest in the health service’s history and fastest in Europe.
‘Since England’s NHS became the first health service anywhere in the world to administer a Covid-19 vaccine, the programme has gone from strength to strength, with everyone in the top priority groups given the opportunity to get jabbed ahead of target.
‘The success of the NHS vaccination programme is not a happy accident. It is down to careful planning coupled with the sheer hard work and determination of doctors, nurses and countless other staff ably assisted by volunteers and many others.’
