No 10 distances itself from Cabinet Office’s Covid vaccine schedule

All UK adults aged 50 and over should receive a coronavirus vaccine by the start of May, the Cabinet Office has said.

However, Downing Street dismissed the timetable in the government document – which said the first nine priority groups of people should have been offered a coronavirus vaccine by early May – prompting renewed confusion over the expected date.

Any programme for reopening the economy depends on the speed of what is officially termed phase 1 of the vaccination programme, which takes in the top nine groups by vulnerability to the virus, going as far as all adults aged 50 and above.

No 10 has said only that the target to reach this milestone is “spring”, refusing repeatedly to be more precise.