U.K. vaccination drive expands as nation’s death toll nears 100K

LONDON — Britain is expanding a coronavirus vaccination program that has seen more than 6 million people get the first of two doses, even as the country’s death toll in the pandemic approaches 100,000.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday three-quarters of Brits over 80 have received a vaccine shot. He said three-quarters of nursing home residents have also gotten their first dose.

Health authorities said 6.35 million doses of vaccine have been administered since injections began last month, including almost 500,000 doses Saturday, the highest one-day total so far. Health officials aim to give 15 million people, including everyone over 70, a first vaccine shot by Feb. 15 and to cover the entire adult population by September.

Britain is inoculating people with two vaccines — one made by U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and German company BioNTech, the other by U.K.-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca and Oxford University. It has also authorized a third, developed by Moderna.

It is giving the shots at doctors’ offices, hospitals, pharmacies and vaccination centers set up in conference halls, sports stadiums and other large venues, such as Salisbury Cathedral. Thirty more locations are opening this week, including a former Ikea store and a museum of industrial history that was used as a set for the TV show “Peaky Blinders.”

Britain’s vaccination campaign has been a rare success in a country with Europe’s worst confirmed coronavirus outbreak. The U.K. has recorded 97,939 deaths among people who tested positive, including 610 new deaths reported Sunday.

The U.K. is set within days to become the fifth country in the world to record 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, after the U.S., Brazil, India and Mexico — all of which have much larger populations than Britain’s 67 million people.

Some health experts have questioned the Conservative government’s decision to give the two vaccine doses up to 12 weeks apart, rather than the recommended three weeks, in order to offer as many people as possible their first dose quickly.

AstraZeneca has said it believes a first dose of its vaccine offers protection after 12 weeks, but Pfizer says it has not tested the efficacy of its jab after such a long gap.

The British Medical Association says the government should “urgently review” the policy.

But Anthony Harnden, deputy head of the government-advising Joint Committee on Immunization and Vaccination, defended the policy, saying the U.K. is in a “dire situation.”

“Every dose of vaccine we give as a second dose, we’ll be denying somebody their first dose at the moment and denying them very good protection,” Mr. Harnden told Sky News. He said the policy of prioritizing first doses would “save thousands and thousands of lives.”