LONDON: The pace of British distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is limited by the supply of imaging, and the government is working with both Pfizer and AstraZeneca to increase supply, health minister Matt Hancock said on Thursday ( January 7).
The government needs to raise the level of vaccines quickly to meet an ambitious target for more than 13 million older, vulnerable or frontline workers to be deployed by mid-February.
“The rate limitation measure is vaccine supply, and we are working with the companies, both Pfizer and of course AstraZeneca, to increase supply,” Hancock told broadcasters.
“The manufacturers are doing a great job, and they are delivering according to the agreed schedule, but that timetable is the level of vaccination we have … we expect that level of vaccination will be seen to go up. “
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Hancock spoke after the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University was rolled out in medical centers from Thursday.
More than 1.3 million people in the UK have received one picture of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, but the government needs to administer around 2 million doses a week to meet their February target.
In a sign of supply restrictions, one doctor visited by Hancock on Thursday said she had not received the expected AstraZeneca vaccine delivery.
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The director of Birmingham City Council and local lawyers wrote to Hancock saying that the AstraZeneca vaccine was not available in the English city center and that stocks of a Pfizer image would run out on Friday.
Britain is prioritizing the administration of first impressions for more people, delaying second doses more than a month after the first.
Only 20,000 people got a second look at the Pfizer vaccine before the guidelines were changed. Pfizer has stated that data for the effectiveness of the first sight is no longer than 21 days.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that if the vaccine rollout is planned, new lock-in measures introduced this week would begin in February.
Johnson, who will deliver a press conference later Thursday, has previously said the time it will take for the regulator to approve a batch of AstraZeneca vaccine as one limiting factor.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was first introduced in hospitals on Monday. It lacks the ultra-low temperature requirements that Pfizer does, making it easier to roll out.
The first boxes of the Pfizer vaccine contained nearly 1,000 doses, but the NHS said smaller boxes were also approved for use that could be used in situations such as care homes without consuming doses.
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