UK med officer: Vaccine immunity to take 3 weeks
London, Jan. 24: One of England's leading medical officers on Sunday urged the public to continue to follow the strict lockdown rules because any vaccine-related immunity from Covid-19 takes at least three weeks to kick in. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer, also warned that there is no clear evidence yet to show that vaccinated people cannot transmit the deadly virus on to others.
“Regardless of whether someone has had their vaccination or not, it is vital that everyone follows the restrictions and public health advice, as protection takes up to three weeks to kick in and we don't yet know the impact of vaccines on transmission,” said Van-Tam. His warning comes as the UK registered another high daily death toll from the virus of 1,348 this weekend. He pointed to an additional 32 vaccination sites coming on stream to add to the thousands of venues where the National Health Service (NHS) has been delivering 140 jabs a minute, taking the vaccinated total to over 5.8 million. “The vaccine is rightly something to celebrate — let's stay patient, stay at home and support the NHS as it continues to roll out the vaccine,” he said. A Living Museum where the BBC filmed a hit drama series ‘Peaky Blinders' based on the notorious Birmingham gang in the 1920s is among the new vaccine sites.
A former IKEA store at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, London, the Francis Crick Institute, which is also in the UK capital, the Nightingale Hospital in Sunderland and the Blackpool Winter Gardens will also be new vaccination centres. The latest openings mean there will be a network of almost 50 across the country.