Every UK adult to be offered Covid vaccine by autumn as 2m now immunised
Health secretary Matt Hancock has said every UK resident over the age of 18 will be offered a Covid vaccine by autumn and that 2m people have now been immunised.
Hancock said the government had 350m doses on order across the different vaccines and that he was confident they could be rolled out before next winter.
The health secretary also told the BBC that 2m people have now been immunised, with a third of over 80s given the vaccine.
He said the rollout has hit 200,000 people a day and that this is set to increase dramatically from next week as seven mass vaccination centres open and as more GP surgeries and NHS hospitals start to offer jabs.
The Sunday Telegraph reports that Boris Johnson wants 50 vaccination centres set up within two weeks.
The government is aiming to administer 2m vaccines a week and have the most vulnerable people to dying from Covid by 15 February.
“Every adult will be offered a vaccine by the autumn, absolutely,” Hancock said.
Before the Open newsletter: Start your day with the City View podcast and key market data
“Of course you need to do it according to need, because someone in a care home is many many more times likely to die if they catch coronavirus than someone like me in their 40s.
“We’ve got 350m doses on order, they’re not all here yet, and we’re rolling them out as fast as they get delivered and we are going to have enough to offer a vaccine to everyone over the age of 18 by autumn.”
Hancock also warned people that the NHS was under the most severe pressure it had ever faced and that it will become overwhelmed if people do not follow the lockdown rules.
Chief medical officer Chris Whitty wrote in the Sunday Times that the NHS was two weeks from being overwhelmed.
“The NHS is under very serious pressure – as the chief medical officer said it’s probably under the greatest pressure it ever has been,” he said.
“That’s particularly true in some parts of the country, but frankly it’s true across the whole UK.
“The NHS has never needed everybody to do something than it does now and that is to stay at home.”