The UK will aim to give all adults the first sight of COVID by September

The UK government says it plans to offer the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to all adults before September as the country’s health service fights the worst crisis in its 72-year history

LONDON – The UK government plans to offer the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to all adults by September as the country’s health service fights the worst crisis in its 72-year history.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Sunday that the government is still opening new vaccination sites and will soon begin trials that provide round-the-clock attacks in some places to help increase delivery speeds. .

“Our target by September is to offer the adult population the first dose,” he told Sky News. “If we can do it faster than that, it’s good, but that’s the roadmap.”

There are over 51 million adults in Britain with 67.5 million people.

The ambitious vaccination program comes amid significant pressure on the National Health Service. Hospitals are already admitting another COVID-19 patient every 30 seconds, putting the service in the most vulnerable position ever, said Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England.

“The facts are very clear and I’m not going to put sugar on them, hospitals are under a lot of pressure and staff are under a lot of pressure,” he told the BBC. “Since Christmas Day we have seen a further increase of 15,000 in inpatient hospitals across England. That equates to filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients. ”

Britain’s healthcare system is staggering as doctors and nurses fight off a more contagious variant of the coronavirus coupled with the cold, wet winter weather that drives people in, where infections spread. easier.

The rise in infections has pushed the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 to 37,475, more than 73% higher than in the first peak of the pandemic in April. Britain has reported 88,747 coronavirus-related deaths, more than any other country in Europe and the fifth highest in the world.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on January 2 ordered England into its third national closure in a bid to promote the spread of the virus and protect the NHS, which Stevens now says has an estimated 50,000 people. off-work due to COVID-19 infections and exposure quarantines.

The government says it will not review the lock-in measures until mid-February, by which time it plans to offer at least one dose of the vaccine to everyone over the age of 70, plus on frontline health care workers and others who are particularly at risk from COVID -19.

Once that target is met, the UK will give the vaccine to everyone over the age of 50 before moving on to everyone over the age of 18.

Unlike other countries, Britain has chosen to extend the interval between vaccine doses from 21 days to up to 12 weeks – a decision that means more people will get at least one dose faster.

Britain has agreed three vaccines – those with Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna. The first two are already in use, although Moderna doses are not expected until spring.

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AP coverage of the coronavirus pandemic continued at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak