Almost 138,000 people across the UK have been vaccinated against Covid-19 since the rollout began last week, the government has announced.
Nadhim Zahawi, the minister overseeing the deployment, said the figures were “a really good start” to the vaccination programme.
The programme began last Tuesday, 8 December, when 70 hospital hubs began immunising over-80s, care home workers and some NHS staff.
Quick guide How does the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine work?
Show
Hide
The Pfizer/BioNTech Covid jab is an mRNA vaccine. Essentially, mRNA is a molecule used by living cells to turn the gene sequences in DNA into the proteins that are the building blocks of all their fundamental structures. A segment of DNA gets copied (“transcribed”) into a piece of mRNA, which in turn gets “read” by the cell’s tools for synthesising proteins.
In the case of an mRNA vaccine, the virus’s mRNA is injected into the muscle, and our own cells then read it and synthesise the viral protein. The immune system reacts to these proteins – which can’t by themselves cause disease – just as if they’d been carried in on the whole virus. This generates a protective response that, studies suggest, lasts for some time.
The two first Covid-19 vaccines to announce phase 3 three trial results were mRNA-based. They were first off the blocks because, as soon as the genetic code of Sars-CoV-2 was known – it was published by the Chinese in January 2020 – companies that had been working on this technology were able to start producing the virus’s mRNA. Making conventional vaccines takes much longer.
Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the Bristol Children’s Vaccine Centre, University of Bristol
Was this helpful?
Thank you for your feedback.
A week on, 108,000 people in England have had the first of their two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, as have 18,000 people in Scotland, 7,897 in Wales and 4,000 in Northern Ireland.
A total of 137,897 people have been inoculated, Zahawi tweeted.
The government has ordered 40m doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, on the advice of its vaccines taskforce headed by Kate Bingham. Five million of those are due to arrive before the end of the month. The first 800,000 doses arrived in the UK over the weekend of 5-6 December from the manufacturing plant in Belgium and began being administered on 8 December.
The figures Zahawi released are the first statistics disclosing the number of people who have had the vaccine. In trials the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine had 95% efficacy.
But neither the government nor the NHS, which is in charge of the service’s biggest ever deployment of a vaccine, has released any figures setting out how many people they expect to receive the jab, or how many vaccinations each site should undertake.
Coronavirus: tensions over handling of UK Covid vaccine rollout
Read more
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said: “Thanks to the hard work of the NHS across the UK, over 137,000 people have already received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
“This is just the start and we will steadily expand our vaccination programme, ultimately helping everyone get back to normal life.”
The number of people receiving the vaccine was due to increase this week when hundreds of GP-run vaccination centres opened, in family doctor surgeries and other venues, including pop-up outdoor venues set up to speed up the rollout. In addition, 10 more hospital trusts in England also began dispensing the vaccine, bringing the total to about 60 in England.
It is unclear if more supplies have arrived or when the next shipments will reach the UK.
The rollout was accompanied by intense discussions and tensions between Boris Johnson’s administration and NHS England over whether NHS staff or people over 80 should get it first. NHS trusts in England were told that frontline personnel would be the priority.
The nature of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine means it has to stay in hospital “hubs”, and under the terms of its licence from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulator Agency (MHRA) cannot be taken from there to GP surgeries or care homes, for example, because if it is moved more than four times it can become unstable and potentially ineffective.
However, priority was instead given to over-80s and care home workers after the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination, which advises the government, reiterated that those were the groups that should be at the front of the queue.
Some NHS staff who are deemed medically vulnerable because they have underlying health conditions have also had it.
The Royal College of GPs welcomed the jab being given to some of those deemed the highest priority. “It’s excellent to see such a positive start to the Covid-19 vaccination programme, and so many of our most vulnerable patients beginning to be protected against the virus,” said Prof Martin Marshall, its chair.
“Vaccines are the best protection we have against many serious, sometimes deadly diseases, and this one has been through a rigorous process to ensure it is safe and effective. We would encourage all patients to come forward for their vaccination, when they are invited, and to ensure they receive their second dose for maximum protection.”
The chief executive of one NHS trust involved in the rollout said they had been given fewer doses than they wanted and did not know when they would be receiving their second consignment.
“We received one batch of 975 doses and have been administering them, mainly to over-80s and care home staff. But if we’d been given twice that number we could have vaccinated double the number of people we have, as the demand is there. We are still unclear if and when we will receive our next shipment. No one has told us that yet,” the chief executive said.
Свежие комментарии