LONDON – The UK government said on Sunday it had reached its goal of giving at least one COVID-19 vaccine to the most vulnerable in the country, increasing pressure on ministers to clarify when to stop locked in early January.
Around 15 million people, or 22% of the UK population, have had their first sightings or been offered one. The figure includes the majority of people in the four main priority groups, including everyone over 75, frontline health care workers and housing- foster.
“15,000,000! An amazing team said, ” Nadhim Zahawi, the minister of the vaccines, said in a tweet that had a red heart. “We will not rest until we have vaccinated to level 1 in total the categories 1-9 of the most vulnerable people & across 50 by the end of April and then all adults. ”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to unveil his roadmap for easing restrictions on 22 February amid signs that disease, hospital and death rates have fallen sharply since England’s third national closure began. January 4th.
Jockeying has already begun between those who want the measures taken as soon as possible and those who are afraid of moving too soon the virus will reactivate.
Britain began its immunization effort in December, when it became the first country to authorize widespread use of the COVID-19 imaging. It lags behind just Israel, 71%, the Seychelles, 53%, and the United Arab Emirates, 50% in the percentage of people who received a single dose, according to data compiled by Oxford University. The U.S. is in fifth at 15%.
At the same time, regulations that have closed non-essential schools, restaurants and shops in the UK are starting to pay off. The number of new infections, hospital admissions and deaths recorded over the past seven days has fallen by more than 20% from the previous week, according to government figures.
When Johnson announced the lockout, he said the government would review the measures in mid-February based on the success in controlling the pandemic and progress in the vaccination effort . Johnson’s first priority is to reopen schools, and has promised to give schools two weeks to give teachers time to prepare for student returns.
The prime minister on Saturday praised the spread of the vaccine but urged people to be careful.
“We still have diseases running very high across the country – levels we would think last year were really high – (and) sadly, still a lot of hospital deaths he said, ”he visited a vaccine manufacturing facility in the north east of England. “While the numbers are starting to come down, and may start to come down very quickly, we have to look at the data very hard.”
Britain has reported more than 117,000 virus-related deaths, the highest number in Europe.
Mark Harper, a ruling Conservative MP, warned the government against “moving the goalposts” to decide when the lockout should be lifted.
Johnson should start by reopening schools, then gradually lift other restrictions as more people get the vaccine, said Harper, who leads a group of about 70 people. a law that has lobbied for the government to consider the adverse economic and social consequences of the restrictions, along with their health benefits.
“If you think about the restrictions that the government imposed on everyone, they are the toughest set of restrictions ever imposed on the British people outside of the Second and First World Wars,” he said. Harper to the BBC. “So it’s worth just going back a bit and saying, ‘This is not normal, and it shouldn’t continue, in fact, for a minute longer than is absolutely necessary.”
Having met the target for reaching the most vulnerable, the UK authorities will extend the vaccination campaign to the five priority groups so that everyone over 50 and vulnerable young people with health conditions can they are put at higher risk from the vaccine virus. .
Public health officials say the nine main priority groups make up 99% of the deaths caused by COVID-19 to date.
Although the currently authorized vaccines in the UK require the use of two doses to ensure full protection against COVID-19, British authorities say that a single dose provides a good level of protection.
Because of this, they have made it a priority for them to give as many people the first dose as soon as possible. To do this, Britain has recommended that the second dose should be given after three months, instead of one month as recommended by the manufacturers.
Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust’s health thinking tank, said the number of COVID-19 infections in Britain is still too high to think about lifting the restrictions.
“We have made great progress… but the transmission is still very high and we need to go lower,” he said.
Other dangers are on the horizon. UK government scientific advisers say the COVID-19 variant now in the country could be up to 70% more lethal than previous variants, allaying concerns about how feature mutations could affect change disease.
The findings from the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Risk Advisory Group, published Friday on the government website, confirm an initial study published Jan. 21. The body, known as NERVTAG, is made up of experts from universities and public bodies across the UK.
The new report is based on an analysis of a dozen studies that found that the so-called Kent variant, named after the county where it was first identified, was 30% to 70% more lethal than other variants. The studies compared hospital and mortality rates among people with the variant and those with other diseases.
“Based on these analyzes, infection with (unlike Kent) appears to be associated with a higher risk for hospitalization and death compared to infection with non-differentiated cancer viruses,” the group said. counseling. “It should be noted that the overall risk of death from all diseases remains low.”
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