FASTER JABS FOR MILLIONS TO COMBAT VARIANT
Vaccine rollout could be accelerated as fears grow over Indian Covid strain
BORIS Johnson could speed up second Covid jabs for millions as fears grow over the Indian variant.
Ministers were in crisis talks with health chiefs yesterday about rushing forward second injections for people
aged over 50 and others considered most at risk from the virus.
Any frontline healthcare workers still awaiting a further dose could also benefit.
Officials said that while there is no evidence that the Covid variant first identified in India is able to evade vaccines, precautions are under discussion after surges in some parts of the country.
The Prime Minister yesterday admitted he was “anxious” about the localised spikes in infection rates.
It is thought the Government has sufficient stocks of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and other vaccines to speed up the rollout of the second jabs.
A Downing Street source said: “The variant of concern first identified in India is beginning to spread increasingly rapidly in certain areas across the country.
“While there is no current evidence that this variant has any greater impact on severity of disease or evades the vaccine, the speed of growth is concerning.
Accelerating
“The Government is considering additional action if deemed necessary, including increased surge testing and options around vaccination.
“It is considering accelerating second doses for the most vulnerable groups in order to provide the fullest possible protection for these groups sooner.
“Discussions with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation are taking place on the details of this option, including precise timings, and the Government will set out full details of this option shortly.”
Anyone in the top nine priority groups, including everyone aged over 50, who has not yet had a second jab could be entitled to an earlier injection if the move goes ahead.
Mr Johnson spoke of his concerns about the Indian variant during a trip to County Durham yesterday as the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies met to discuss possible precautionary measures.
The Prime Minister, visiting Cleves Cross Primary School in Ferryhill, said: “At the moment there is a very wide range of scientific opinion about what could happen.
“There is a range of things we could do, we are ruling nothing out.”
Asked if local lockdowns were possible, he went on: “There are a range of things we could do, we want to make sure we grip it.
“Obviously, there’s surge testing, there’s surge tracing. If we have to do other things, then of course the public would want us to rule nothing out.” But he believes Monday’s return to indoor drinking and dining is still on, and said we are still on course to lift all national restrictions by the end of next month.
Mr Johnson said: “At the moment, I can see nothing that dissuades me from thinking we will be able to go ahead on Monday and indeed on June 21 everywhere.
“But there may be things we have to do locally and we will not hesitate to do them if that is the advice we get.”
Asked if masks and social distancing would be scrapped, he added: “I am cautiously optimistic about that.
“Provided this Indian variant doesn’t take off in the way some people fear, I think certainly things could get back much, much closer to normality.”
UK cases of the Indian variant have more than doubled in the past week, according to Public Health England data.
Figures published on Thursday evening show there are 1,313 cases of the version in the country, up from 520 the previous week.
The new type, known officially
as B.1.617, has been confirmed in London, Bolton, Blackburn, Nottingham, Leicester, Tyneside and Teesside and is suspected in Glasgow.
The variant was first detected in India last October and is thought to have spread internationally from people travelling out of the sub-continent.
Figures have confirmed it is now the most common variant. In Bolton, the strain was linked to a coronavirus surge among under-25s and sent a shiver of anxiety through hospitality businesses. European Medicines Agency officials were “pretty confident” the current vaccine programme would be effective against the Indian version.
One member of the Nervtag advisory committee on emerging viruses played down the threat. Professor Robert Dingwall said: “We need to stop panicking about every new variant that comes along.”
He added that the new type is “more transmissible” than the others and could become the dominant Covid variation.
He added: “The consequence of this would be a greater number of mild illnesses with little risk of a surge in deaths.”
Prof Dingwall, of Nottingham Trent University, said data from India shows people who are fully vaccinated are not developing infections. Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of Tory MPs, insisted the spread of the Indian variant should not mean a return to draconian restrictions.
He said: “Why on earth would we lock down when the vaccines continue to break the link between cases and hospitalisations and deaths?”
Officials said a further 11 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of yesterday, bringing the UK total to 127,651.
There had been a further 2,657 lab-confirmed cases in the UK.