Boris Johnson marked a ‘crucial milestone’ in the nation’s fight against Covid as the NHS announced all older residents in England’s care homes have been offered a vaccine.
The Prime Minister said the rollout ‘will only accelerate from here on’ after the daily number of jabs administered in the UK exceeded 500,000 for the first time.
NHS England said more than 10,000 care homes with older residents had been offered vaccines, meeting the deadline set by the Government.
A ‘small remainder’ were said to have had their visits deferred for safety reasons during a local outbreak but these will be visited ‘as soon as NHS staff are allowed to do so’.
Mr Johnson said: ‘Today marks a crucial milestone in our ongoing race to vaccinate the most vulnerable against this deadly disease.
‘We said we would prioritise and protect care home residents, and that is exactly what we have done.’
But he added there will be ‘difficult moments to come’, with the number of infections and individuals in hospital still ‘dangerously high’.
Ministers are growing increasingly confident of hitting the target of vaccinating the 15 million most vulnerable people by mid-February after a record high of jabs on Saturday.
Official figures showed 598,390 first doses were administered across the UK, bringing the total number of people to have received a dose to 8,977,329.
Based on the latest figures, an average of 401,512 first doses of vaccine would be needed every day for the Government’s February 15 target to be met.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that four fifths of over-80s have received their first dose of the vaccine, alongside three quarters of those aged between 75 and 79.
Meanwhile, there was a fresh warning over the pressure being faced by the NHS.
Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents 240 trusts, said it will take ‘months’ for the health service to return to normal after the pandemic ends.
With staff ‘completely exhausted’, Mr Hopson told the Guardian: ‘We cannot expect the NHS to carry on at the intensity we’ve been running at. We’ve completely run the tank dry and need to give people the chance to recover.’
Separately, a subgroup of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) said physical distancing and facemasks ought to be used more ‘consistently and effectively’, including in outdoor settings, to mitigate transmission of variant strains of Covid-19.
The paper from Sage’s environmental modelling group, from January 13, said: ‘Consideration should be given to using face coverings in a wider range of settings where people could be asymptomatic and may be in close proximity (less than two metres).
‘This may include outdoor spaces where it is difficult to maintain distance and people may be close together for extended periods.’
Current rules require face masks in a number of indoor settings in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2021/02/01/every-care-home-in-england-has-been-offered-covid-vaccine-13998294/