LONDON | More than 20 million people in the United Kingdom have already received a first dose of the vaccine against the coronavirus, the government welcomed on Sunday, which is counting on mass vaccination to get out of the health crisis.
• Read also: All the developments of the pandemic
This announcement comes at a time when the country of 66 million inhabitants, very hard hit by the pandemic, is worried about the detection on its territory of a variant that appeared in Manaus, Brazil, considered to be more virulent.
“Twenty million people across the UK have now received the vaccine – a huge national achievement,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter.
He asked anyone called to receive the vaccine to accept it, because “every injection makes a difference in our battle against COVID-19”.
Saying “absolutely delighted” by this new step, the Minister of Health Matt Hancock thanked “each of the people who showed up for an injection, because [les autorités ont] increasing certainty that the vaccine protects [les gens] , protect [la] community, and that it is also the exit route for all ”.
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“There is still a long way to go, but we are making great strides,” he added in a video posted on Twitter.
According to official figures released on Sunday, 20,089,551 first doses were administered, with the number of second doses reaching 796,132.
Disturbing variant
The most bereaved country in Europe with around 123,000 dead, the United Kingdom is counting on mass vaccination to get out of the containment put in place since January to contain a new very virulent wave, attributed to a more contagious variant that has appeared in the south from England.
“With vaccine supplies set to increase in March, we plan to accelerate further as we approach Easter,” (April 4), England’s director-general of the public health service (NHS) Simon Stevens said.
But while the country rejoiced at the progress of vaccinations, health authorities announced on Sunday that they had detected six cases of people infected with a variant, identified in Manaus, in northern Brazil, which could be more contagious and resist to existing vaccines. One of these people could not be located due to incomplete contact details provided as part of his test.
As part of the vaccination campaign, launched in early December and one of the most advanced in the world, the government aims for all people over 50 to have received a first dose of vaccine by April 15, then all adults at the end of July.
Then, in order not to slow down its progression, vaccination will continue according to age rather than according to the level of exposure associated with professions (such as police officers and teachers), according to the recommendation of the scientific committee overseeing the campaign. Priority will therefore be given to people aged 40 to 49, then to those in their thirties and finally to adults between 18 and 29 years old.
The government had previously met its goal of partially vaccinating, by mid-February, with the Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccines currently deployed, the estimated 15 million people aged 70 and over (caregivers, residents and household workers). of retirement).
The number of contaminations and deaths has fallen for a few weeks, and confinement will be very gradually relaxed between March and the end of June. But the authorities called on the population not to let their guard down and to continue to respect the restrictions in place.
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