Brian Pinker, 82, receives the Oxford University / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Sam Foster at Oxford Churchill Hospital as the NHS increases its vaccination schedule by 530,000 doses of the new approved jab, available for launch in the UK 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 aims to offer every adult in the country a first dose of coronavirus vaccine by July 31, a month earlier than its previous target.
The new target also aims for everyone over the age of 50 or with an underlying health condition to receive a vaccine by April 15, rather than the previous May 1 target.
The manufacturers of the two vaccines used by the United Kingdom, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have both had supply problems in Europe. But UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who announced the new targets, said “now we think we have supplies” to speed up the vaccination campaign.
The early success of Britain’s vaccination campaign is good news for a country that has had more than 120,000 deaths from coronavirus, the highest value 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 vaccinations began on December 8.
The UK is late in giving the second dose of the vaccine up to 12 weeks after the first, in order to provide partial protection to as many people as possible as soon as possible. The approach has been criticized in some countries – and by Pfizer, which says it has no data to support the delay – but is backed by British government scientific advisers.
News of the new vaccination targets came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with senior ministers on Sunday to finalize a “roadmap” outside the national blockade, a plan to be announced on Monday.
Faced with a dominant variant of the virus in the UK, which scientists say is both more transmissible and more deadly, the UK has spent much of the winter under close deadlock. Bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, hair salons and all non-essential shops have been closed while food stores, pharmacies and eateries for food are still open.
The government stressed that economic and social reopening will be slow and cautious, with non-essential shopping or outdoor socializing unlikely before April. Many children will return to school on March 8, and nursing home residents will be able to have a visitor on the same date.
Johnson’s Conservative government has been accused of reopening the country too soon after the first spring blockade.
The number of new confirmed cases, hospitalization and deaths are declining, but remain high, and Johnson says the roadmap for its reopening will follow “data, not data.”
But he is under pressure from Conservative lawmakers, who say restrictions should be lifted quickly to revive an economy that has been hit by three deadlocks in the past year.
John Edmunds, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group, said British hospitals were still treating about 20,000 coronavirus patients in mid-January, but almost as much as the height of the first spring rise.
“If we could do this very quickly now, we would have a new increase in hospitalizations and deaths,” he told the BBC.
Edmunds said there was additional uncertainty over new virus variants, including one identified in South Africa, that could be more resistant to current vaccines.
Hancock told Sky News that the government would take a “prudent but irreversible approach” to reopening the economy.