Boris Johnson warns of threat of coronavirus to younger people

The UK is aiming to accelerate its vaccine rollout with the hope of giving a jab to 2 million people every week. However, extra types of vaccines could allegedly speed up this process even more.

A Government source told the Telegraph yesterday that the UK could be vaccinating between 4 million and 5 million people per week within months.

They claimed this could see the vaccine being delivered to “all over-18s by June”.

So far, the Government has only publicly committed to one target – to have given at least one jab to 15 million Britons by February 15.

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A source added that even this goal of vaccinating the top four priority groups would put the country “in a great place because the rest of the economy can begin to open up”.

However, there are concerns this could be missed due to delays in manufacturing.

Recently, Pfizer, which produces one of the UK’s widely-used coronavirus vaccines, has said it will temporarily slow down deliveries of the jab to the UK as it boosts manufacturing.

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They claimed “the overall projected volumes of delivery to the UK remain the same for quarter one”.

The UK Government has claimed it is continuing to work to the target of “vaccinating all four priority groups by 15 February”, though it is “in the process of understanding the implications” of the Pfizer delay.

Currently, the UK is leading the pack in terms of Europe’s vaccine rollout.

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Analysts say the country’s rapid vaccine rollout was made possible by its early regulatory approval as well as early deals with vaccine producers as far back as August.

According to Politico, another reason is that the UK’s vaccine appointment system is also going more smoothly and is easier to use than some EU nations.

A jab can be booked online or via the NHS without a GP appointment – but in France, people have to see a doctor five days before they can get a vaccine and also need to provide written consent.

In addition, Britain’s population is said to be less sceptical about the vaccine than that of other countries such as France.

Meanwhile the EU has hit out at Pfizer’s vaccine delay announcement, with six EU leaders calling the situation “unacceptable” in a letter to the European Commission.

A Government source has also told the Telegraph that AstraZeneca – which co-produces the Oxford vaccine – is investigating whether its own jab needs to be reworked to deal with new variants of Covid-19.

There are currently some concerns over three variants – one which originated in the UK and reached over 50 other countries, a South Africa variant, and a variant from Brazil.

The variants seem to be more transmissible, according to reports.

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