UPDATE (February 22):
As the vaccine rollout gets underway, is has been reported that 17.2million Britons have now been given the first jab in the two-part vaccination against coronavirus. Of those, over 600,000 have now been given the second jab.
The government’s initial target was to have everyone vaccinated by September, however Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now gone on record as saying he wants the programme to “go further and faster”. According to the new timeline, it’s expected that all adults will have been offered the jab by July 31.
The PM is quoted as saying: “Hitting 15 million vaccinations was a significant milestone — but there will be no let up, and I want to see the rollout go further and faster in the coming weeks. We will now aim to offer a jab to every adult by the end of July, helping us protect the most vulnerable sooner, and take further steps to ease some of the restrictions in place.”
Original story below.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has told Sky News that all UK adults should be offered the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine by September, with the hope some of the current lockdown restrictions can be lifted by March.
“Our target is that by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose,” he said. “If we can do it faster than that, great, but that’s the roadmap.” He also said that he hopes the UK can “get back to normal” in the next few months.
However, despite more than 3.8 million people in the UK having received their first dose of the vaccine, Raab refused to guarantee that everyone will get their second vaccine dose within 12 weeks, saying that the government “ought to be able to deliver on that”.
#SophyRidge “Can you guarantee if someone gets their 1st dose of the Pfizer vaccine there will be a 2nd dose to given within a 12 week period?”
Dominic Raab “we ought to”
Not a great comfort given this Gov’ts record pic.twitter.com/B2vjtEjoM1
The Foreign Secretary also refused to rule out the possibility of special “quarantine hotels” for people coming into the country, with The Sunday Times reporting that officials have been told to prepare for the creation of such facilities for those arriving in Britain, stating: “We’ve considered all of the possibilities… We’ll consider all the measures in the round.”
