500,000 people most at risk have had their jab

SOME 500,000 people have received the coronavirus jab in the two weeks since supplies arrived in Britain.

The nationwide rollout continues to gather pace with more than 400 sites across the UK now offering the inoculation.

The world- first vaccine will be administered over the coming week, including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Speaking yesterday Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “The numbers are accelerating and rising fast.” As of Saturday morning 350,000 people had been vaccinated.

And by last night the hope was “to have something around the half- million mark.

“We are vaccinating more and more each day. We have now got over 400 different sites that are vaccinating, whereas at the start of last week we only had 100. There is a significant acceleration in the plans.

“It is an enormous challenge, until we can get the vaccine rolled out, to protect people. This is what we face over the next couple of months.”

Confident

Mass vaccinations started on December 8 after Britain was the first country in the world to take delivery of the Pfizer- BioNTech jab, made in Belgium.

It is given in two doses. Those who have received their initial injection are not immediately immune and will need a booster jab 21 days later.

This week more than 200,000 people a day should be receiving their jabs, equal to more than one million doses before Christmas.

GP surgeries and hospital hubs already have more than 100,000 appointments booked in the largest vaccination programme in British history. Rates will increase as other vaccines are approved.

Reviews of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines are already under way and authorisation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency could be given within days.

It has been suggested Oxford University’s coronavirus jab will be approved shortly after Christmas, raising hopes millions of people every week could soon be being vaccinated. Sources claim the agency will authorise the vaccine on December 28 or 29.

Boris Johnson said he was confident a “significant proportion” of the population would be vaccinated by spring, and that “things will be radically different for our country by Easter”.

The UK pre- ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine and has taken delivery of 800,000 so far. That is enough for 400,000 people as each recipient has to take two doses 21 days apart.

Pfizer said: “The deliveries are on track and progressing according to our agreed schedule.

“We can confirm, in accordance with the schedule, that there will be continued deliveries into the UK in early 2021, with shipments scheduled to arrive before March.”

Meanwhile, Britain has secured 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine with football stadiums and other major sites set to open their doors in the first week of January to allow a ramping up of the programme.

If the Oxford vaccine is approved and mass vaccine centres open up, several million people each week could be vaccinated, leading to 20 million of the most vulnerable people being given the jab by March.

● Women who receive the coronavirus jab and are trying to get pregnant were told yesterday to abstain from unprotected sex for two months.