COVID-19 vaccine is optional in Britain: Health Minister
LONDON: People in Britain will be able to decide whether they want to have the coronavirus vaccine or not, health minister Matt Hancock said on Tuesday, adding that children will not need to be vaccinated.
“We’re not proposing to make this compulsory, not least because I think the vast majority people are going to want to have it,” Hancock told TV channel on Tuesday.
“This is not for children and children have a very low susceptibility to coronavirus,” he added.
Boris warns against easing efforts to fight coronavirus
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday warned against relaxing efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic amid looming hopes of a vaccine.
“We cannot rely on the news about a vaccine as a solution” in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson told a virtual press briefing at the Downing Street.
“It would be a mistake to slacken our resolve in fighting the virus,” the prime minister said. Mass testing can be a substitute to the restrictions, he said while briefing the whole country on the current coronavirus situation in the country amid vaccine hopes. It is more important than ever that people follow the lockdown rules, Johnson said.
“Hands, face, space. Follow the rules — that’s how we can protect the NHS (National Health Service), save lives, and get the virus back in its box,” Johnson said.
Putin: All Russian COVID-19 vaccines are effective
Russian President Vladimir
Putin on Tuesday said all Russian vaccines against COVID-19 were effective, adding that the country would soon register a third shot against the virus, the news agency reported.
Putin said Moscow was ready to cooperate with all other countries on coronavirus vaccines, but urged against politicising the process, the day after vaccine developers Pfizer Inc and BioNTech said their experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective.