All residents who want jab have had one
VIRTUALLY all care home residents in England have had the chance to have a Covid jab with the vaccine programme reaching a “crucial milestone”.
Medics have visited more than 10,000 sites and inoculated hundreds of thousands of staff and residents.
Boris Johnson revealed nearly nine million people have now had their first jab across the UK.
He said the programme will “accelerate from here on”.
The Prime Minister added: “Today marks a crucial milestone in our ongoing race to vaccinate the most vulnerable against this deadly disease.
“We said we would prioritise and protect care home residents, and that is exactly what we have done.
“There will be difficult moments to come, and the number of cases and people in hospital remains dangerously high. But vaccines are our route out of the pandemic and having protected 8.9 million people with a first dose so far, our rollout will only accelerate from here on.”
The Government had promised to offer all eligible care home residents and staff a vaccine by yesterday.
No one is obliged to accept a jab and the Government will reveal how many chose to today.
A small number of homes – less than one per cent – held off their turn after recording Covid cases.
Martin Green, the Care England chief executive, described the landmark as a “wonderful achievement”.
He said: “We now look forward to working in partnership to deliver the Government’s ambitious programme for administration of the second dose and rolling the programme out to people with learning disabilities living in care homes and supported living settings.”
Mr Johnson is expected to hold a People’s Prime Minister’s Questions today with Nikki Kanani, NHS England’s primary care director, to address public concerns about Covid.
Dr Kanani, a GP, has been personally involved in getting vaccines into care homes.
She said it was a “privilege” to inoculate some of the most vulnerable people and their “wonderful” carers.
Dr Kanani added: “Many have had little contact with the outside world throughout the pandemic and so it has been truly humbling for all, giving them hope and – importantly – protection against the disease.”
An aircraft was due to take off from RAF Brize Norton, Oxon, early this morning carrying 3,000 shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the Falkland Islands.
RAF flights have also delivered 11,000 doses to Gibraltar.
International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said it was “too early” to say when the UK would send vaccines to other nations.
But she insisted Great Britain will help struggling countries when it has a surplus of jabs.
Brussels is still dealing with the fallout from its disastrous attempt to impose a hard Irish border as part of a vaccine export ban.
The bloc has been struggling to secure the supplies it needs to jab residents across its 27 member states.
Ms Truss guaranteed there will be no disruption to Pfizer jabs ordered by the UK that come from within the EU’s borders.
She confirmed the PM spoke to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Ms Truss added: “She assured him that there will be no disruption of contracts that we have with any producer in the EU.
“Of course, we first need to make sure that our population is vaccinated. We have a target to get the most vulnerable vaccinated by mid-February.
“We want to work with friends and neighbours, we want to work with developing countries because we’re only going to solve this issue once everybody in the world is vaccinated.
“It won’t benefit Britain if we become a vaccinated island and many other countries don’t have the vaccine.”
She refused to rule out talk that some social distancing measures will last all year.
It came as scientific advisers suggested deaths can only be substantially reduced in tandem with a gradual relaxation of restrictions if vaccines are 85 per cent effective.
Ms Truss added: “I don’t want to make predictions.”