Assistant nurse Katie McIntosh administers the first of two Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to Vivien McKay Clinical Nurse Manager at Western General Hospital, on the first day of the largest immunization program in British history, in Edinburgh, Scotland Great Britain 8 December 2020.
Andrew Milligan | Reuters
LONDON – The UK government is facing doubts about whether the country is about to face a shortage in the supply of vaccines against the coronavirus, a factor that could hamper its hitherto successful immunization program.
“We have less supply than we expected in the coming weeks, but we expect it to increase again later,” Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBC on Thursday.
“The vaccine’s launch will be a little slower than we might expect, but no slower than the target,” he said. “We have every reason to believe that the offer will increase in the months of May, June and July.”
Later, Jenrick told Sky News that the government is “purchasing vaccines from around the world and we are occasionally experiencing some problems and this has led to this, this problem with some supply in the coming weeks”.
Jenrick’s comments come amid a flurry of news in the British media that the UK launch may be about to hit some turmoil. It was widely reported that the administration of millions of doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca injection produced by the Serum Institute of India could be delayed by four weeks.
Jenrick declined to comment on specific contracts, however. CNBC contacted the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, to comment on the reports, but has not yet received a response.
Ten million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine were expected to come from the SII, Reuters reported in early March. In all, the UK has ordered 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, with most of the supply coming from within the UK
However, Britain also faces possible supply disruptions if the EU moves forward with a proposal to withhold vaccine exports from the bloc while its own program is delayed. The supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that the United Kingdom is also using in its vaccination program come from Belgium.
Since its distribution began in December, Britain’s health service has overseen the vaccination of more than 25 million people with the first dose of the vaccine. More than 1.7 million people have already received a second dose of the double vaccines currently in use in the UK, government data show.
‘Still on the way’
The National Health Service had previously warned of a reduction in supplies to England “in April in a letter to local health organizations”, according to the BBC.
But the government said it was still in the process of offering everyone over 50 the first dose of the vaccine by April 15, and to all UK adults the first dose by the end of July.
“The vaccination program will continue for the next few weeks and more people will continue to receive the first and second doses,” said a spokesman for the Department of Health and Welfare in a statement on Wednesday night.
“As has been the case since the beginning of the program, the number of vaccinations carried out over time will vary depending on the offer”.
‘Big problem’
Global health experts have long warned that vaccines, their supplies and distribution would be an area conducive to discord between countries and regions.
Dr Margaret Harris, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, told CNBC on Thursday that the public health agency had known since the beginning of the pandemic that the distribution of the vaccine would be a “major problem”.
“In previous outbreaks, this is exactly what happened. Some groups and countries had good access (to vaccines) and even had excessive access, while many countries were left with nothing. We saw this during the 2009 flu pandemic, “she told CNBC’s” Squawk Box Europe “.
“We are encouraging manufacturers to make deals to allow more manufacturing around the world to really increase supply,” she said.
The UK’s vaccination program has been its saving grace after the pandemic that hit the country heavily. The UK has the fifth highest number of cases in the world, with more than 4.2 million infections reported, and has recorded more than 126,000 deaths to date, according to Johns Hopkins University.