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The UK will ramp up its massive coronavirus vaccination program this week, offering millions more shots as the country closes its borders to anyone who has not tested negative.
Vaccines will be offered to humans deprecated 70 years and older, and those considered “clinically extremely vulnerable” as of Monday – the third and fourth priority groups. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it an “important milestone” in the vaccination effort.
The government wants to offer the vaccine to all adults in the UK by September, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday. To date, more than 4.3 million people have received their first dose Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker.
Meanwhile, ministers will close travel corridors with other countries from Monday, meaning all foreign visitors will need a negative test result to enter Britain within 72 hours of travel. Health officials will step up checks to ensure they isolate themselves for the next 10 days.
England no longer listens to Johnson’s lockdown orders
The government has not ruled out the setting up of quarantine hotels or the use of GPS trackers to ensure that people stay put. Raab told Sky News it would “consider every opportunity” to enforce Covid rules and prevent new variants of the virus from derailing the UK’s vaccination efforts.
Forcing travelers to stay in specialty hotels upon arrival would leave the UK many months behind other countries, such as Australia, which introduced the policy in March last year.
England is in third national confinement, with schools closed and people ordered to stay at home, while the government tries to contain the wave of cases during the winter. More than 37,000 coronavirus patients are currently hospitalized and the daily death toll remains high – with an additional 671 deaths recorded on Sunday.
Johnson’s government is pinning its hopes on the vaccination program to end the crisis. The National Health Service will begin rolling out the shot to the two new groups this week, as some parts of England have already vaccinated the two top priority groups: the over-80s and primary health and care providers.
Over 39.7 million shots delivered: Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker
Ten new mass vaccination centers are opening this week – including on a racecourse, cathedral and rugby grounds – bringing the total in England to 17, with more to follow. There are also 1,200 hospitals and GP-run sites that offer vaccinations.
“We still have a long way to go and there are bound to be challenges – but by working together we are making huge strides in our fight against this virus,” Johnson said in a statement.
The current lockdown will be reviewed in mid-February, but ministers have warned there will be no rapid return to normalcy. Raab said the restrictions would not be lifted until “early spring” and that it would be a gradual process rather than a “big bang”.
Advantages row
The profound impact of 10-month restrictions on businesses and employees means that Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure to do more to help the poorest families.
The main Labor opposition party in the UK will set fire to fire on Monday by enforcing a vote in the House of Commons on an increase in benefits – worth more than £ 1,000 a year – after March 31. Raab said the increase in Universal Credit was a “temporary measure” and would be supported in the March budget.
The Times reported Saturday that Sunak plans to instead provide a one-time payment of £ 500 ($ 680) to benefit recipients. But a powerful group of conservative lawmakers, the Northern Research Group, has warned that this wouldn’t be enough – and insisted that Sunak should extend the benefits.
Ministers are also faced with calls to do more for sectors of the economy most affected by the virus restrictions – the UK Chambers of Commerce warned last week that many businesses are “on their knees”.
A new government subsidy program for airports and their ground operations to help with the costs of closing travel corridors was welcomed by the British Airline Pilots Association – but they warned that the situation for aviation was getting “desperate” and called for a broader recovery plan.
For Eurostar International Ltd., whose passenger trains connect London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, the outlook is equally bleak. Traffic fell 95% even before the latest measures, prompting the London First lobby group to write to Sunak requesting it act quickly to secure the operator’s future.
Eurostar Survival issue grows as UK companies lobby for rescue