LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “Herculean” goal of vaccinating around 14 million of the most vulnerable population groups against COVID-19 by the middle of next month is achievable, the Wednesday your minister responsible for immunization.
As major powers weigh the benefits of being the first to emerge from the pandemic, the United Kingdom is rushing to vaccinate its population faster than the United States and the rest of Europe, although Russia and China have been vaccinating citizens for months.
Politicians and scientists consider the vaccine to be the main way out of the coronavirus crisis, which has killed 1.87 million people, devastated the world economy and disrupted the daily lives of billions of people around the world. world.
Johnson has set a goal of vaccinating the elderly, including those in nursing homes, and clinically vulnerable and front-line workers by mid-February, representing about 14 million people.
When asked if it was possible to vaccinate 14 million people by mid-February, at a rate of 2 million vaccinations every week by the end of this month, COVID Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said yes.
“It’s a Herculean effort,” he told Sky, adding that it was difficult but doable, adding that a quarter of people over the age of 80 had already received their first injection.
More than 1.3 million people in the UK have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The UK, which suffers the fifth highest death toll from COVID in the world and one of the biggest economic impacts, was the first country to introduce the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech almost a month ago.
This week it became the first country in the world to start applying the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
Information from Sarah Young; written by Guy Faulconbridge; Edited by Kate Holton; translated by Tomás Cobos
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