LONDON (AP) – Britain is expanding a coronavirus vaccination program that will get more than 6 million people the first dose of two – even if the country’s death toll in the pandemic is 100,000.
Health Minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday that three-quarters of Britons over the age of 80 had been vaccinated. He said three-quarters of the nursing home residents also got their first jerk.
Health authorities said 6.35 million doses of vaccine had been administered since the injections began last month, including nearly 500,000 doses on Saturday, the highest one-day date so far. Health officials aim to give 15 million people, including everyone over the age of 70, a first vaccine that was shot on February 15, and should cover the entire adult population by September.
Britain vaccinates people with two vaccines – one manufactured by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German company BioNTech, the other by the UK-Swedish drug manufacturer AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. It also approved a third developed by Moderna.
It gives the shots at doctors’ offices, hospitals, pharmacies and vaccination centers set up in conference halls, sports stadiums and other large venues such as Salisbury Cathedral.. This week, another thirty venues open, including a former IKEA store and an industrial history museum that was used as a set for the TV show ‘Peaky Blinders’.
Britain’s vaccination campaign is a rare success in a country with the worst confirmed coronavirus outbreak in Europe. The UK recorded 97,939 deaths among people who tested positive, including 610 new deaths reported on Sunday.
Within a few days, the United Kingdom will be the fifth country in the world to record 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico – all of which have a much larger population than the 67 million inhabitants of Britain.
Some health experts have questioned the Conservative government’s decision to give the two doses of vaccines up to twelve weeks apart, rather than the recommended three weeks, in order to offer their first dose to as many people as possible.
AstraZeneca said it believes a first dose of its vaccine provides protection after twelve weeks, but Pfizer says it has not tested the effectiveness of its vaccination after such a long gap.
The British Medical Association says the government needs to ‘urgently review’ the policy.
But Anthony Harnden, deputy head of the joint committee on immunization and vaccination of the government, defended the policy, saying the UK was in a “dire situation”.
“Every dose of vaccine we give as a second dose will currently deny someone their first dose and deny them very good protection,” Harnden told Sky News. He said the policy of prioritizing first doses would save thousands and thousands of lives.
Britain’s latest boom is fueled in part by a new virus variant first identified in the south of England, which scientists say is more transmissible than the original strain. They also say it could be more deadly, although the evidence is weaker.
The British government has said that quarantine requirements for people arriving from abroad could be tightened in an effort to keep out other new variants discovered in South Africa and Brazil. Already travelers to Britain have to isolate themselves for ten days, but enforcement is volatile. The authorities are considering insisting on staying in quarantine hotels such as those in Australia and some other countries.
The UK is in an exclusion for several weeks to try to slow down the spread of the virus. Bars, restaurants, gyms, entertainment venues and many shops are closed, and people are expected to stay largely at home.
The lock-in rules will be reviewed on February 15, but the government says it is too soon to think about easing the restrictions.
“There is early evidence that business closures are starting to slow down, but we are far, long, far from low enough,” Hancock said.
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