UK ‘on track to vaccinate all over-50s’
Rollout still on course says Hancock as NHS bosses warn of reduced supplies
THE UK is still “on course” to ensure all over-50s get their Covid vaccinations by mid-April, Matt Hancock has insisted after NHS bosses warned of a “significant reduction” in supply in the coming weeks.
As the country passed the 25 million mark for first doses of the vaccine, a letter to local health leaders states that “volumes for first doses will be significantly constrained” from March 29.
And amid an ongoing row over the supply of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen yesterday threatened to block the export of coronavirus vaccines to the UK.
But Health Secretary Mr Hancock told a Downing Street press conference that despite “lumpy” supplies of the vaccine, the NHS was still on track to offer all over50s a first jab by April 15 and all adults by the end of July.
He praised the effectiveness of the vaccinations delivered so far which meant about nine in 10 people aged around 70 had antibodies and Covid-19 deaths are “falling so fast”
And he said: “We can see that the vaccines are making people safe and saving lives, and we’re on track on the vaccine side, we’ve seen cases coming down, critically we’re seeing the number of hospitalisations and deaths falling very sharply, and that’s good news for us all.”
The letter from NHS England leaders stated that volumes of first doses of vaccines would be “significantly constrained” from the end of March because of the fall in supply.
It added that the Government’s Vaccines Task Force “now currently predict this will continue for a four-week period, as a result of reductions in national inbound vaccines supply”.
Asked about the letter, Mr Hancock said: “Vaccine supply is always lumpy and we regularly send out technical letters to the NHS to explain the ups and downs of the supply of the future weeks and what you are referring to is a standard one of those letters.”
Yesterday, European Commission president Ms von der Leyen sparked fury as she said the EU will consider halting vaccine exports to countries with higher coverage rates than its own, as it struggles to achieve the pace of rollout managed in the UK.
Downing Street urged the EU to “stand by its commitment” not to restrict exports, with the Pfizer jab being produced in BioNTech’s German manufacturing sites as well as in Pfizer’s site in Belgium.
Under pressure and with parts of the EU on the “crest of a third wave” of infections, Ms von der Leyen warned she is “ready to use whatever tool we need” to ensure the reliable delivery of vaccines.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab warned that the “world’s watching” as he suggested the bloc was acting like a “less democratic” regime and that its threat would break direct assurances it had given Britain.
And a leading expert said people across Europe will die from Covid-19 as a direct consequence of the decision to halt rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Professor Jeremy Brown, from the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said the move by several European countries to suspend the vaccine over blood clot fears was “not sensible” and “not logical”.
England’s deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan VanTam said that there was no evidence of increased risk of blood clots with the AstraZeneca jab, adding that “vaccines don’t save lives if they’re in fridges”.
Boris Johnson has said he is due to have his Covid-19 vaccine shortly and it will “be Oxford/ AstraZeneca”. In a show of support for the jab, which more than a dozen European countries have stopped using, the Prime Minister told MPs: “I think perhaps the best thing I can say about the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine programme is that I finally got news that I’m going to have my own jab very shortly, I’m pleased to discover.” Official figures show 77 deaths linked to coronavirus were recorded in the country’s hospitals in the 24 hours to 4pm on Tuesday.
We can see the vaccines are making people safe and saving lives. Health Secretary Matt Hancock.