Oronavirus vaccines may not entirely prevent people from transmitting the virus to others and people who received the vaccine must still continue to obey blocking restrictions, said England’s deputy medical director.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said that if those who were vaccinated start to decline because they are protected, they are potentially putting those at the bottom of the priority list who still need inoculation at risk.
His warning came when the latest government figures showed that the number of people who received the first dose of the vaccine across the UK was over 5.8 million, with a record 478,248 receiving the vaccine in a single day.
* People arriving in the UK from abroad may be required to be quarantined in a hotel, according to several Sunday papers, with the office divided over whether the policy should apply to all arrivals or only to those returning from points critical of the coronavirus.
* A collective representing more than 400 public and private schools offered to vaccinate all of England’s teachers and educational support staff during the February semester in a letter to Boris Johnson, said the Mail on Sunday.
* At least eight different vaccine passport schemes have received government funding totaling £ 450,000 as of January 1, according to the Sunday Telegraph, although Cabinet Minister Michael Gove previously said such certificates “were not the plan”.
Professor Van-Tam, writing in the Telegraph, said it remains to be seen whether people who have been vaccinated can still transmit the virus to others, even if they themselves are protected from falling ill.
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Mr. Van-Tam said that people who got the vaccine will have to follow the rules “for a little while longer”
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“So even after receiving two doses of the vaccine, you can still give Covid to someone else and the chains of transmission will continue,” he wrote.
“If you change your behavior, you can still spread the virus, keeping the number of cases high and putting others at risk who also need the vaccine, but are even further away in line.
“Regardless of whether someone vaccinated or not, it is vital that everyone follows national restrictions and public health councils, as protection takes up to three weeks to take action and we still don’t know the impact of vaccines on transmission.
“The vaccine has brought considerable hope and we are in the final stage of the pandemic, but for now, vaccinated or not, we still have to follow the guidelines for a little longer.”
Separately, another 32 vaccination sites are due to open across the country this week, including one at the museum that became famous as the set of the TV series Peaky Blinders.
Locations include the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, which appeared on the longtime TV show, a racetrack, a football stadium and an old Ikea store.
Professor Van-Tam also responded to doctors who criticized the decision to extend the interval between the first and the second dose of the vaccine to 12 weeks.
The British Medical Association wrote to the medical director of England asking for a rethink, saying that in the case of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine a maximum interval of six weeks was determined by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Professor Van-Tam said that widening the gap is the fastest way to get a first dose to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
He said: “But what none of these (who ask reasonable questions) is going to tell me is: whoever is on the risk list should experience a slower access to their first dose so that someone who has already taken a dose (and therefore the most protection) can you get a second? ”
BMA’s chairman, Dr. Chaand Nagpaul, said that while he understood the “reason” behind the decision, no other country is taking the UK approach.
“We think that the flexibility that WHO offers to 42 days extension is being stretched too much to go from six weeks to 12 weeks,” he said.
“Obviously, protection will not disappear after six weeks, but what we don’t know is the level of protection that will be offered. We must not extrapolate data where we don’t have it.”
Meanwhile, it is reported that schools in England will not reopen fully in the next month – and may not return until after Easter break.
The Sunday Times said Education Secretary Gavin Williamson should rule out returning to classrooms after the half-time break in February and prepare parents for an extended period of home schooling.
As early as Thursday, Williamson said he hoped schools could reopen before Easter, although Downing Street declined to endorse his comments.