WE’LL BE FIRST COUNTRY TO BEAT COVID

Minister’s vow as ALL adults now set to be offered a booster dose

COVID booster jabs could be rolled out for all adults in the coming weeks as ministers said Britain was on track to be the ‘first country in the world’ to beat the Covid pandemic.

As chaos raged across Europe, where new lockdowns are being imposed, the Prime Minister insisted there was no need for further restrictions here.

Ministers said that as long as the vaccination programme continued at pace, we are on course for a happy Christmas and it was safe to ‘order a big turkey’.

Yesterday hundreds of thousands of over-40s booked in for their booster doses as the rollout expanded to that age group.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is now considering the case for younger age groups.

Ministers hope the booster doses could be approved for use in the over

‘On course for a good Christmas’

30s early next month, with younger age groups following in the New Year.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, who was in charge of the initial vaccine rollout, said there was no need to deviate from plans for big family gatherings over the festive period.

He said UK could be the first major economy to transition from pandemic to endemic using vaccines, adding that from next year, Covid will be treated ‘like the flu’. Speaking to LBC, Mr Zahawi added: ‘Our four-step plan meant that we were able to open up the economy in the summer. Some said it was a mistake – I think it was absolutely the right thing to do.

‘We will probably, without being complacent, be the first major economy in the world to demonstrate how you transition this virus from pandemic to endemic using vaccines.

‘The most important thing is the booster campaign because you have to continue to protect the most vulnerable. As of today if you’re over 40 you can get your booster. Don’t delay – get out there and get your booster because that’s how we’re going to make sure we have a really good Christmas.

‘I hope by the New Year we’ll be in a really confident place. We’ve got these new antivirals coming through, so next year and the year after we’ll treat it in the way we treat the annual flu.’

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson confirmed he will not introduce Plan B – involving mandatory face masks, working from home and vaccine passports. He said: ‘You have got to be humble in the face of nature but at the moment we see nothing in the data to say that we need to move from Plan A to Plan B, or any other plan.’

The latest data shows hospitalisations and deaths have fallen in the past week, although cases are up slightly.

Yesterday 44,917 new infections and 45 deaths were recorded.

Experts say they believe the UK is in better position than much of Europe due to higher levels of population immunity after a larger summer wave. Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford, told Times Radio: ‘Back in the dark days of March, April, May 2020, everybody said, “Oh gosh, aren’t the Germans clever, they haven’t got any Covid and aren’t the Brits dumb because they’ve got lots of it?”

‘Actually, I don’t think it has quite played out that way. One of the interesting things is that it may well be that the delay in lockdown in the UK, the pretty extensive level of disease, has given us longer-term protection.’

There are concerns the Government will fall well short of its target of offering boosters to 32million by Christmas.

So far 15.3million people in the UK have had their third doses, while 80 per cent of over-12s – 46 million in total – have been double-jabbed. Labour health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth warned: ‘There are still parts of the country where the second jab rate, like Leicester or Blackburn, still isn’t good enough. We really need to drive that up.’

Last night the NHS revealed that more than 217,000 had booked in for their boosters yesterday morning alone as the programme opened up to over-40s.

nO One can deny that big mistakes were made as the Government grappled with the unprecedented Covid crisis. The events of yesterday prove we also got a lot right.

While europe is in turmoil, suffering riots, raging infection rates and a return to full lockdown, here Covid may soon be downgraded from pandemic to endemic.

There’s no room for complacency. The nhS remains under stress, so everyone must have their jabs when called.

But thanks to the vaccine – and the extraordinary resilience of the British people – we can finally allow ourselves some cautious optimism.