Brian Pinker, 82, receives the COVID-19 vaccine from Oxford University / AstraZeneca from nurse Sam Foster at Churchill Hospital in Oxford, while the NHS extends its vaccination program with 530,000 doses of the newly approved vaccine available for distribution worldwide. United Kingdom on January 4, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Steve Parsons – WPA Pool / Getty Images)
Steve Parsons | WPA Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The British government announced on Sunday that it plans to give every adult in the country a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine by July 31, a month before its previous target.
The new target also aims for everyone over 50 or with an underlying health problem to receive the vaccine by April 15, instead of the previous May 1 target.
Manufacturers of the two vaccines Britain is using, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have faced supply problems in Europe. But UK health secretary Matt Hancock, who announced the new targets, said “now we think we have the supplies” to speed up the vaccination campaign.
The initial success of Britain’s vaccination campaign is good news for a country that has had more than 120,000 deaths from coronavirus, the highest number of deaths in Europe. More than 17.2 million people, almost a third of the country’s adults, have received the first of two doses of the vaccine since inoculations began on December 8.
Britain is delaying the administration of the second dose of the vaccine until 12 weeks after the first, in order to give partial protection to as many people as possible quickly. The approach has been criticized in some countries – and by Pfizer, which claims to have no data to support the delay – but is supported by scientific consultants from the UK government.
News of the new vaccine targets came when Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with senior ministers on Sunday to finalize a “roadmap” outside the national blockade, a plan he is expected to announce on Monday.
Faced with a dominant variant of the virus in the United Kingdom which, according to scientists, is more transmissible and deadly, Britain has spent much of the winter under a tight block. Bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, hair salons and all non-essential stores were closed while grocery stores, pharmacies and food delivery places are still open.
The government emphasized that economic and social reopening will be slow and cautious, with non-essential purchases or unlikely outdoor socializing before April. Many children will return to school from 8 March and residents of nursing homes will be able to receive a visitor from the same date.
Johnson’s conservative government was accused of reopening the country very quickly after the first blockade in the spring.
The number of new confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths are decreasing, but remain high, and Johnson says his reopening roadmap would follow “data, not dates”.
But he is under pressure from conservative lawmakers, who argue that restrictions should be lifted quickly to revive an economy that was hammered by three blockades last year.
John Edmunds, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group, said British hospitals still treat about 20,000 coronavirus patients, half of January’s peak, but almost as much as the first wave’s peak in spring.
“If we slowed down very quickly now, we would have another increase in hospitalizations” and deaths, he told the BBC.
Edmunds said there is additional uncertainty because of new virus variants, including one identified in South Africa that may be more resistant to current vaccines.
Hancock told Sky News that the government would take a “cautious but irreversible approach” to reopen the economy.