The UK is currently vaccinating 200,000 people a day and is on its way to hitting two million vaccinations a week, Matt Hancock has said.
The Health Secretary confirmed around one third of the over-80s have been vaccinated so far as he said the country was ‘on course’ to reaching the Government’s target of 13 million vaccinations by mid-February.
He told Sky News: ‘Yes we’re on course. The rate limiting factor at the moment is supply but that’s increasing.
‘I’m very glad to say that at the moment we’re running at over 200,000 people being vaccinated every day.
‘We’ve now vaccinated around one third of the over-80s in this country so we’re making significant progress but there’s still further expansion to go.
‘This week we’re opening mass vaccination centres. Big sites for instance at Epsom racecourse, there’s seven going live this week with more to come next week where we will get through very large numbers of people.’
Mr Hancock also said it is ‘highly likely’ people will be vaccinated against Covid annually, as with the flu.
He said: ‘I think it’s highly likely that there will be a dual-vaccination programme for the foreseeable, this is the medium-term, of flu and Covid.’
‘Flu vaccination rates are at their highest level ever,’ he added. ‘Over 80% of the over-65s have been vaccinated for flu this year. That’s the biggest increase, a jump on last year when it was around 70%.
‘That’s very good news. It’s good news for two reasons. Firstly, to protect people against flu and secondly because it shows the vast, vast majority of over-65s are up for getting vaccinated.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2021/01/10/uk-vaccinating-200000-a-day-and-on-course-for-2000000-a-week-13878620/