I'm pleased to share with you the news of the success in our vaccination program so far. Thanks once again to everyone who is helping us get back to normal life!
OVER 12.6 MILLION people have received a vaccine so far across the United Kingdom:
- We have administered more than 13.1 million vaccines across the UK. We are now averaging 2.5 million doses a week and have reached 9 in 10 of those aged 75 and over in England with their first dose – at a rate of 1,000 a minute last Saturday, and we are accelerating the rollout by offering a vaccine to everyone over 50 by May.
- One in four British adults have now received a coronavirus vaccine, with first doses having been given to:
- 93 per cent of individuals in care homes
- 92 per cent of people over 80
- 96 per cent of 75-79 year olds
- 77 per cent 70-74 year olds
- As we promised, we have now offered the vaccine to residents at every eligible care home with older residents in England. We have visited every eligible care home with older residents in England – 10,307 in total – and offered vaccinations to all their residents and staff, a vital milestone in our ongoing race to protect the most vulnerable against the disease.
- Only two countries, the United States and China, have vaccinated more people than the UK. We are also the third country in the world for vaccinations per capita behind only Israel and the UEA – a testament to British science, as we are leading the world from the front in science, research and development.
- Overall, we have now secured early access to over 407 million total doses of vaccines for 2021 and 2022. This means we will have the Oxford-AstraZenca vaccine manufactured in Oxford, Staffordshire and Wrexham; the Novovax vaccine made in Teesside and the Valneva vaccine, subject to approval, produced in Livingston, Scotland – a great example of what we can achieve together as one United Kingdom.
- And last week we announced a new partnership with vaccine manufacturer CureVac to rapidly develop new vaccines in response to new Covid-19 variants if needed. While the vaccines we are deploying now are safe and effective, this partnership will allow us utilise the UK’s expertise on genomic and virus sequencing to quickly develop new varieties of vaccines to combat new strains of the virus if necessary.
