LONDON (AP) – The UK announced on Sunday that it has achieved its goal of giving at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot to the most vulnerable people in the country, increasing pressure on ministers to explain when they get a lockout which was introduced in early January will facilitate.
More than 15 million people, or 22% of the British population, received their first shot. The figure includes most people in the top four groups of government, including all over the age of 75, frontline health workers, nursing home staff and residents. More than 537,000 of them also received their second dose.
“15,000,000! The incredible team, ″ Nadhim Zahawi, the Minister of Vaccines, said in a tweet with a red heart and three syringes. ‘We will not rest until we offer the vaccine to the 1-9 categories of the most vulnerable and older than 50s and then adults by the end of April. ″
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to unveil his roadmap for easing restrictions on 22 February amid signs that infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths have fallen sharply since England’s third national exclusion began on 4 January.
“This country has achieved an extraordinary feat – inflicting a total of 15 million stab wounds into the arms of some of the most vulnerable people in the country,” Johnson said in a tweet.
Johnson said in England, everyone in the four top priority groups was offered the vaccine. He plans to release further details on the vaccination attempt on Monday.
Jocks have already started between those who want to lift the measures as soon as possible and those who fear that moving too fast will lead to a revival of the virus.
Britain began its vaccination effort in December, when it became the first country to approve widespread use of a COVID-19 shotgun. According to the University of Oxford, this is only Israel, 73%, the Seychelles, 53% and the United Arab Emirates, 51% in the percentage of people who received one dose. The US is fifth at 15%.
At the same time, the closure rules for coronavirus schools, restaurants and non-essential stores in the UK are beginning to bear fruit. The number of new infections, hospital admissions and deaths recorded in the past seven days have all dropped by more than 20% from the previous week.
When Johnson announced the closure, he said the government would review the measures in mid-February based on their success in controlling the pandemic and the progress of the vaccination effort. Johnson’s first priority is to reopen schools, and he has promised to give two weeks notice to give teachers time to prepare.
Britain has reported more than 117,000 virus-related deaths, the highest number of pandemics in Europe.
Mark Harper, a lawmaker from the ruling Conservative party, warned the government against “moving the goalposts” because he decided to facilitate the exclusion.
Johnson should start by reopening schools and then gradually lift other restrictions as more people are vaccinated, Harper said. He leads a group of about 70 lawmakers who have urged the government to consider the negative economic and social consequences of the restrictions, along with the health benefits. .
‘Once you’re protecting people from serious illness and death, I do not think these draconian restrictions on not meeting your family, not seeing your friends, not seeing your children, not seeing your parents, and not “People in the care do not visit homes, I think it is no longer justifiable,” Harper told Times Radio.
Once the UK authorities reach the target of reaching the most vulnerable, the vaccination process will be gradually extended to the next five priority groups until all older than 50 and vulnerable younger people with health conditions that increase the risk of the virus have been offered the vaccine.
Public health officials say the top nine priority groups are responsible for 99% of COVID-19 deaths so far.
While the vaccines currently in use in the UK require two doses to ensure full protection against COVID-19, the UK authorities say that one dose provides a significant degree of protection.
As a result, they have made it their priority to give the first dose to as many people as possible as quickly as possible. To do this, Britain plans to give second doses after three months, instead of one month as recommended by the manufacturers.
Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust health think tank, said the number of COVID-19 infections in Britain was still too high to think about lifting the restrictions.
“We have made tremendous progress … but the broadcast is incredibly high and we need to get it lower,” he said.
There are other dangers on the horizon. British government scientific advisers believe that the COVID-19 variant currently prevalent in the country could be up to 70% more lethal than previous variants, and this highlights concerns about how mutations could alter the characteristics of the disease.
The findings of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, published on the government’s website on Friday, build on preliminary research released on January 21. The group, known as NERVTAG, includes experts from universities and public agencies across the UK.
The new report is based on analysis of a dozen studies that found that the so-called Kent variant, named after the country where it was first identified, is probably 30 to 70% more lethal than other variants. The studies compared hospitalization and mortality rates among people infected with the variant and those infected with other variants.
The results of the analysis are worrying, says Dr David Strain, a clinical senior lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School and the clinical clue for COVID at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital.
“The higher transmissibility means that people who previously had a low risk of catching COVID (especially younger fitter females) now catch it and end up in the hospital,” Strain said. “This is emphasized by the latest figures for hospitalization, which now represent almost a 50:50 man-to-woman ratio, compared to the fact that it was mainly in men during the first wave.”
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