ON TARGET TO FREEDOM

IN THE 41 days since Britain made history by rolling out the world’s first jabs, Herculean efforts have been made to build the foundations of a system capable of vaccinating the population at record speed. Phase one – inoculating the 15 million most vulnerable people – has a target date of mid-February. This is the point when experts believe it will be safe to start easing the crippling cycle of restrictions. So far, more than 3.5 million people have had a first dose – one in 20 of the population. They include about half those aged 80 or over, or more than 1.5 million. Younger care home residents and more than a million health and social care workers have also had their first dose. Now the programme is picking up pace.