The vaccines minister is ‘confident’ every UK adult over 50 will be offered a vaccine by May.
Nadhim Zahawi also ruled out vaccine passports, branding them ‘discriminatory’.
It comes amid increasing confidence in Government that the UK is likely to meet its target of giving jabs to 15 million of the most vulnerable people jabs by mid February.
Mr Zahawi has said nearly 1,000 vaccines a minute were provided in an hour on Saturday morning. He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: ‘The limiting factor is vaccine supply so the vaccine supply remains finite. I can tell you that yesterday between 11 and 12 o’clock we almost got to 1,000 jabs a minute, we got to 979 jabs a minute.
‘I’m confident we’ll meet our mid-February target of the top four cohorts, I’m also confident because I have enough line of sight of deliveries that are coming through, that we will also meet the one to nine cohorts by May.’
The ninth group in the UK’s priority list is all those over 50s.
He added: ‘It’s a tough target by the way, many many people who are clinically extremely vulnerable have to be reached by GPs, some can’t travel.’
Mr Zahawi later said the UK was starting to store second doses of the vaccine, preparing to provide both first and second doses of vaccines next month.
Asked if the pace of vaccines could slow down, Mr Zahawi said there was ‘no doubt’ it would vary.
Later asked when plans for quick Covid tests in workplaces with more than 50 employees will be rolled out, Mr Zahawi said: ‘We want it to become the norm that people when they go to work, once we are over this obviously lockdown, then they can be tested rapidly.
‘We’ve got the volumes, we’ve done a similar thing with local government and key workers. This is a really important point because vaccines are our way out of this pandemic but coupled with vaccines is test, trace and isolate.’
Official data up to yesterday showed that some 11,465,210 people have been given their first dose, and a further 510,057 have had a second jab.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2021/02/07/all-over-50s-will-be-offered-covid-jab-by-may-says-vaccines-minister-14036213/