The British government said on Sunday that every adult in the country should get a first coronavirus vaccine shot on July 31, at least a month ahead of its previous target, as it prepared for a “cautious” plan to ease the UK’s lockdown.
The previous goal was for all adults to receive an injection in September. The new target also calls for all over-50s and those with an underlying health condition to get their first of two vaccinations before April 15, rather than the previous May 1 date.
The makers of the two vaccines used in Britain, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have both faced delivery problems in Europe. But UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday that “we now think we have supplies” to speed up the vaccination campaign.
The early success of the vaccination effort in Britain 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 17.5 million people, a third of UK adults, have had at least one injection since the December 8 vaccinations.
Britain is delaying giving a second vaccination dose to 12 weeks after the first, instead of three to four weeks, to provide partial protection to more people soon. The approach has been criticized in some countries – and by Pfizer, who says it has no data to support the interval – but is backed by the UK government’s scientific advisers.
The news about the new vaccine targets came like this Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with senior ministers on Sunday to finalize a “roadmap” out of the national lockdown. He plans to reveal details in Parliament on Monday.
Faced with a dominant virus variant that scientists say is both more transmissible and more deadly than the original virus, Britain has spent much of the winter under tight lockdown. Bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, hair salons and all non-essential stores are closed; supermarkets, 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 in February, but remain high, and Johnson says his reopening roadmap will follow “data, not dates.”
But he’s under pressure from some conservative lawmakers, who argue that the restrictions need to be lifted quickly to revive an economy hammered by three lockdowns over the past year.
John Edmunds, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group, said UK hospitals are still treating nearly 20,000 coronavirus patients, half the peak in January but nearly as many as the peak of the first wave last 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 that the government would take a “cautious but irreversible approach” to reopen the economy.
Despite the success of Europe’s fastest vaccination campaign, the UK government has been accused of failing to protect people with disabilities, who are among the biggest risks of the coronavirus.
The Office for National Statistics has determined that 60% of people who died of coronavirus in England in 2020 had a physical or mental disability. But many people with disabilities, apart from those with “severe or severe” learning disabilities, have not been placed in a vaccination priority group.
Jo Whiley, a well-known BBC radio DJ, on Sunday highlighted the fate of her 53-year-old sister Frances, who has a learning disability. Whiley said her sister contracted the coronavirus during an outbreak at her nursing home, whose residents had not been vaccinated.
Whiley said her sister had finally gotten a shot of vaccine – but it came too late.
“She was actually called up for her vaccine last night. My mother got a message saying she could get vaccinated, but it’s too late, she’s fighting for her life,” Whiley told the BBC. “It couldn’t be more cruel.”