Yahoo Finance More than 40% of UK adult population offered first vaccine, Hancock says
More than two-fifths of the UK adult population has been offered a dose of Covid-19 vaccine, Matt Hancock has said.
The health secretary told a Downing Street news briefing that impact of vaccinations was already been seen in a reduction in deaths, which he said had fallen 41 per cent in the past week.
Meanwhile, more than one million people in the UK have received both doses of Covid-19 vaccine, according to data published by the health agencies of the four nations.
A total of 1,034,068 second doses had been given by March 4, according to the latest figures from health agencies in the UK’s four nations.
It means the equivalent of 2 per cent of UK adults are now full vaccinated.
This includes some 729,265 people have been given both doses in England, along with 154,819 in Wales, 108,197 in Scotland and 41,787 in Northern Ireland.
The government’s vaccine programme has prioritised giving more people their first dose on the basis that it will give them a large amount of protection, and that it can be spread more widely.
Mr Hancock told the briefing: “What this all shows is that the link from cases to hospitalisations and then to deaths that had been unbreakable before the vaccine – that link is now breaking.
“The vaccine is protecting the NHS, saving lives right across the country. The country’s plan is working.”
Speaking earlier this week, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said March would be a "very big month" for vaccinations across the UK.
"You have seen the numbers tick up of second doses - yesterday I think we were at 800,000 second doses," he told the BBC.
"And in March you will see that number increase even more, because obviously those who had the first dose in January will be getting their second dose.
"The NHS have got all the protocols in place to deliver that, as well as of course continuing to do the first dose.
"March will be a very big month for us. We'll probably going to be twice the rate over the next 10 weeks as we have done over the past 10 or 11 weeks."
Read More
