Study says Britain needs two million a week to be vaccinated to prevent the third wave of COVID-19

(Reuters) – Britain needs two million people vaccinated every week to prevent the third wave of the coronavirus revolution, a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has concluded.

PHOTO FILE: People walk down Oxford Street as shops remain closed under Stage 4 restrictions, amid the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), in London, Britain, 26 December 2020. REUTERS / Henry Nicholls

The UK has killed more than 71,000 people from coronavirus and has recorded more than 2.3 million cases of COVID-19 infections at the end of Monday, according to a Reuters account.

“The harshest intervention is with level 4 across England with schools closed in January and 2 million people vaccinated each week, the only scenario we thought would reduce the minimum ICU burden below the levels seen in the first wave, ”the study said.

“Without a large vaccine rollout, cases, hospitals, ICU admissions and deaths in 2021 may be higher than in 2020.”

Accelerated uptake of two million vaccines per week is expected to have a “greater impact”, he said bit.ly/3o9l2MJ. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his scientific advisers have said that a variant of the coronavirus, which can be up to 70% more susceptible, is spreading rapidly in Britain, although it is not thought to be more fatal or causing more serious illness.

That prompted tense social mix austerity measures for London and the south-east of England, and plans to reduce invitations over Christmas across the country were greatly reduced or eliminated altogether.

Media reports over the weekend said that the United Kingdom will release the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Jan. 4, with the expectation of approval from the country’s medical regulator within days.

Earlier this month, the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to release the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.

The British government said on Thursday that 600,000 people in the United Kingdom have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine since inoculations began.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Edited by Michael Perry

.Source