UK seeks to give 1st COVID shot to all adults by September

  U.K. government plans to offer a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to every ult by September as nation’s health service battles worst crisis in its 72-year-history.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Sunday that government is still opening new vaccination sites and will soon begin trials that will give round--clock injections at some locations to help increase pace of delivery.

“Our target is by September to have offered all ult population a first dose,’’ he told Sky News.

If we can do it faster than that, great, but that’s romap.Britain has more than 51 million ults in its population of 67.5 million people.

ambitious vaccination program comes amid crushing pressures on National Health Service.

Alrey beleaguered hospitals are mitting ar COVID-19 patient every 30 seconds, putting service in its most precarious situation ever, said Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England.

“ facts are very clear and I’m t going to sugarcoat m, hospitals are under extreme pressure and staff are under extreme pressure,’’ he told BBC.

Since Christmas Day we’ve seen ar 15,000 increase in in-patients in hospitals across England. That’s equivalent of filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients.

Britain’s health care system is staggering as doctors and nurses battle a more contagious variant of coronavirus coupled with cold, wet winter wear that drives people inside, where infections spre more easily. surge in infections has pushed number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 to a record 37,475, more than 73% higher than during first peak of pandemic in April. Britain has reported 88,747 coronavirus-related deaths, more than any or country in Europe and fifth-highest number worldwide.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Jan. 2 ordered England into its third national lockdown in an effort to slow spre of virus and protect NHS, which Stevens said w has some 50,000 employees off work due to COVID-19 infections and exposure quarantines.

government says it won’t review lockdown measures until mid-February, by which time it plans to offer at least one dose of vaccine to everyone over 70, as well as to frontline health care workers and ors who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.

Once that goal has been reached, U.K. will offer vaccine to everyone over 50 before finally moving on to everyone over 18. Unlike or nations, Britain has chosen to stretch out time between vaccine doses from 21 days to up to 12 weeks — a decision that means more people will get at least one dose more quickly.

Britain has approved three vaccines — ones by Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna. first two are alrey being used, while Moderna doses are t expected until spring.

(IM CREDITS:AP)