Brian Pinker, 82, is receiving the Oxford University / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Sam Foster at Churchill Hospital in Oxford as the NHS increases its vaccination program by 530,000 doses of the newly approved sample released in January in the UK is available. 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 intends to give every adult in the country a first dose of coronavirus vaccine by 31 July, a month earlier than the previous target.
The new goal is also aimed at getting everyone over 50 or with an underlying health condition a vaccine by April 15, rather than the May 1 previous target.
The manufacturers of the two vaccines used by Britain, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have both experienced problems in Europe. But British Health Minister Matt Hancock, who announced the new targets, said “we now think we have the stock” to speed up the vaccination campaign.
The early success of Britain’s vaccination campaign is welcome good news for a country with more than 120,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe. More than 17.2 million people, almost a third of the adults in the country, are receiving the first of two doses of vaccine since vaccination began on December 8.
Britain delays the administration of second doses up to 12 weeks after the first to partially partially protect as many people as possible. The approach has been criticized in some countries – and by Pfizer, which says it has no information to support the delay – but is backed by British government scientific advisers.
The news about the new vaccine targets came when Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with senior ministers on Sunday to finalize a “road map” from the national exclusion, a plan he will announce on Monday.
Confronted with a dominant British virus variant that, according to scientists, is more transmissible and deadly, Britain has spent much of the winter under strict lockdown. Bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, hair salons and all non-essential shops are closed while grocery stores, pharmacies and eateries are still open.
The government has stressed that economic and social reopening will be slow and cautious, and it is unlikely that there will be unimportant shopping or socialization outside before April. Many children return to school from March 8 and residents of the old age home can have one visitor from the same date.
Johnson’s Conservative government is accused of reopening the country too quickly after the first closure in the spring.
The number of newly confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths is declining, but it remains high, and Johnson says his reopening of the roadmap will follow ‘data, not dates’.
But he is under pressure from conservative lawmakers, who argue that restrictions must be lifted quickly to revive an economy that has been hampered by three barriers 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, half the January peak, but almost as many as the peak of the first surge in the spring.
“If we were to relax very quickly now, we would get another increase in hospitalizations and deaths,” he told the BBC.
Edmunds said there was added uncertainty due to new virus variants, including one identified in South Africa that is more resistant to current vaccines.
Hancock told Sky News that the government would take a “cautious but irreversible approach” to reopening the economy.