Most care home residents in the UK have been offered the coronavirus vaccine, NHS England announced on Monday, as the government aims to meet its goal of inoculating 15 million people within the next two weeks.
Vaccine
The government's goals initially seemed ambitious, but it looks more likely the target number of people will have been immunised by February 15.
The UK is currently involved in a spat with the EU over vaccine imports as developers such as AstraZeneca face supply chain issues which are preventing them from providing the EU with the agreed-upon doses within the allotted timeframe.
Read more: EU and AstraZeneca clash over vaccine supply transparency
Nearly 9 million people have received the vaccine in the UK, with NHS England claiming a record 598,389 have been inoculated within the last 24-hours.
The NHS's latest sats show residents across 10,000 care homes have been offered the vaccine.
It also noted a few coronavirus cases have prevented healthcare workers from administering vaccines to a few cases, but workers are expected to visit and immunise those patients once it is safe to do so.
Boris Johnson called the achievement “a crucial milestone in our ongoing race to vaccinate the most vulnerable."
He added: “Vaccines are our route out of the pandemic, and having protected 8.9 million people with a first dose so far, our rollout programme will only accelerate from here on.”
The seven-day rolling average of first doses given in the UK is now 374,858.
Current trends suggest that 401,512 doses will need to be administered per day in order to reach the government's goals.
International trade secretary Liz Truss is confident the government will reach their goals.
New Covid strains are currently putting little pressure on the immunisation of the public. However, many of the vaccine developers have warned new strains could be made less effective unless new trials are conducted to ensure their efficacy.
Moderna is undertaking precautionary trials for a new vaccine to test against newer strains of Covid-19, such as the ones discovered in the UK and South Africa.
Read more: Moderna develop new vaccine to tackle new Covid stains
Trials show their original vaccine is effective against these strains, but the US-based pharmaceutical company want to ensure people will be properly immunised.
Initial research shows that antibody response was six times lower than normal with the South African strain, which could present a threat to more vulnerable people.
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