82-year-old Brian Pinker receives Oxford University / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Sam Foster at Churchill Hospital in Oxford, as the NHS expands its vaccination program with 530,000 doses of the newly approved shot to be delivered in the UK in January rolled out 4, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Steve Parsons – WPA Pool / Getty Images)
Steve Parsons | WPA Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The UK government announced on Sunday that it is aiming to give every adult in the country a first dose of coronavirus vaccine by July 31, a month ahead of its previous target.
The new target also aims to ensure that everyone over 50 years of age or with an underlying health condition receives a vaccination before April 15, instead of the previous target of May 1.
The makers of the two vaccines Britain uses, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have both faced delivery problems in Europe. But UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who announced the new targets, said “we now think we have the supplies” to speed up the vaccination campaign.
The early success of the UK vaccination campaign is welcome good news for a country that has seen more than 120,000 deaths from the coronavirus, the highest number in Europe. More than 17.2 million people, nearly a third of the country’s adults, have received the first of two doses of vaccine since the vaccinations began on Dec. 8.
Great Britain is delaying a second vaccination dose until 12 weeks after the first in order to provide partial protection to as many people as possible quickly. The approach has been criticized in some countries – and by Pfizer, which says it has no data to support the delay – but is supported by the UK government’s scientific advisers.
News of the new vaccine targets came when Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with senior ministers on Sunday to finalize a “roadmap” out of the national lockdown, a plan he will announce Monday.
Faced with a dominant British virus variant that scientists say is both more transmissible and more deadly, Britain has spent much of the winter under tight lockdown. Bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, hair salons and all non-essential stores are closed, while grocery stories, pharmacies and takeaways are still open.
The government has stressed that economic and social reopenings will be slow and cautious, with non-essential shops or outdoor socializing unlikely before April. Many children go back to school from 8 March and residents of nursing homes can have one visitor from the same date.
Johnson’s conservative government has been accused of reopening the country too soon after the first lockdown in the spring.
The number of new confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all declining 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 must be lifted quickly to revive an economy hammered through three lockdowns in the past year.
John Edmunds, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group, said UK hospitals are still treating about 20,000 coronavirus patients, half the peak in January but almost as much as the height of the first wave in the spring.
“If we were to decline very quickly now, we would have another rise in hospital admissions and deaths,” he told the BBC.
Edmunds said there is additional uncertainty due to new virus variants, including one identified in South Africa that may be more resistant to current vaccines.
Hancock told Sky News the government would take a “cautious but irreversible approach” to reopen the economy.