UK PM Boris Johnson cautiously welcomes ‘loud toot’ of the vaccine bugle

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday struck a te of caution as he welcomed promising results from Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and warned that new possible vaccine against COVID-19 has cleared only one significant hurdle and re are several more to go.

dressing a briefing from 10 Downing Street here, Johnson urged British public t to “slacken” ir resolve as it is still “very, very early days”, even as he confirmed that UK h pre-ordered 40 million doses of Pfizer vaccine – eugh for about a third of UK population, taking into account that two doses each are required.

“We have talked for a long time, or I have, about distant bugle of scientific cavalry coming over brow of hill, and tonight that toot of bugle is louder. But it is still some way off. And we absolutely cant rely on this as a solution,” he said.

He reiterated that it is “crucial” t to overdo things and follow lockdown rules strictly until December 2, after which England is set to revert to a tiered lockdown system. “We cant let our enthusiasm (about a vaccine) run away with us. It is more vital w than ever that we follow basics,” said prime minister.

England's deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, who joined Johnson at briefing, said he was "hopeful" that first vaccine could be seen by Christmas after Pfizer's anuncement earlier on Monday that its vaccine candidate has proven 90 per cent effective in a large trial.

“This is a very important scientific breakthrough. I am certain of that. I am hopeful because of all that, but t yet certain that we could begin to see some vaccine by Christmas… I think we have to be optimistic but we have to wait and see how vaccine manufacture goes,” said Prof Van-Tam.

“Alas, death figures are tragically rising, running at an aver of over 300 a day – sly double where y were 24 days ago. number of COVID-19 patients in hospital has risen from just over 10,000 two weeks ago to nearly 13,000 on vember 5, and we are heing towards levels of previous peak,” said Johnson, as experts ran through statistics with him.

main focus of Monday’s briefing was on mass testing rolled out in Liverpool on Friday, which Johnson said were being widely taken up in city and urged ors to also come forward and get tested for “your friends, for your relatives, for your community”. He confirmed that government is going beyond city-wide pilot and sending out hundreds of thousands of rapid lateral flow tests to local authorities right across England and or parts of United Kingdom. “We’re also working with universities to establish, as soon as possible, similar mass testing capacity for students up and down country,” Johnson ded. 

(Im Credits: AP)