Every UK adult to get jab ‘ by autumn’

EVERY adult will be offered a coronavirus jab by the autumn, UK health secretary Matt Hancock has pledged.

Vaccines – described by a British public health chief yesterday as the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ – have now been rolled out to around two million people in the UK.

This week, more than 600,000 people aged 80 and over will receive a letter inviting them to get their jab at one of seven new mass vaccination centres.

And 50 giant vaccination hubs are reportedly set to be put into operation over the coming weeks.

Dr Anjan Ghosh, director of public health for the London borough of Bexley, said: ‘The vaccination itself is genuine light at the end of the tunnel, so it’s an enormously important intervention to rollout.

He told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: ‘It does feel more like we’re getting a grip on it, that there’s a way to end this, there’s a pathway.’

After the UK government set the target to vaccinate around 13million vulnerable people, including care home residents, by the middle of February, Mr Hancock has pledged a new time-scale to inoculate every adult in the country. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘Every adult will be offered a vaccine by the autumn – absolutely. It’s very, very important.’

The health secretary said a dual vaccination for coronavirus and flu was also ‘highly likely’ in the future.

Government expert Professor Peter Horby said the information to date on the success of vaccines against new variants was ‘very encouraging’.

Rather than every year, he suggested it might be that people would have to get a coronavirus vaccine ‘every few years’ if it does need to be updated against new variants.