[ad_1]
England needs to speed up its Covid vaccine roll-out by 12 per cent to meet Boris Johnson’s ambitious target for July 19, MailOnline can reveal.
Analysis of NHS England data shows 15.3million extra jabs need to be administered to ensure all adults have had their first dose and two-thirds have are fully inoculated by ‘terminus day’. The Government’s previous goal was to ensure all over-18s were offered a jab by the end of July.
Although No10 hasn’t made achieving the goal a clause of going ahead with the final unlocking, Freedom Day was only ever delayed from June 21 by four weeks to ensure millions more adults were fully protected and to save the NHS from being overwhelmed once again.
Statistics suggest the health service would have to speed up its current roll-out by nearly an extra 50,000 doses per day in order to meet the targets.
Currently England is administering around 390,000 jabs per day but it needs to hit just under 440,000. In the UK as a whole, around 462,000 jabs are being dished out a day on average — 45 per cent fewer than the best day of the roll-out on March 20, when almost 850,000 jabs were administered.
London will require the most combined first and second doses to meet the targets, with nearly 4million jabs still needed. Mayor Sadiq Khan today pleaded the Government for more Pfizer and Moderna doses to meet demand for its younger population.
Meanwhile, the UK today passed the milestone of fully vaccinating 30m people, or 57.3 per cent of the population. NHS vaccinations yesterday dished out a further 132,117 first doses and 230,959 second doses.
It comes as NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens today announced the health service expects all over-18s to be offered a vaccine by the end of the week. The roll-out was extended to over-23s today.
But the rate at which the final phase of the roll-out proceeds will depend entirely on how many doses are made available by manufacturers, with Sir Simon admitting that ‘supply continues to be constrained’.
Vaccinating under-30s is entirely dependent on the supply of the Pfizer and Moderna jabs. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is not recommended for under-40s because of its rare links to blood clots.
Boris Johnson yesterday delayed June 21 ‘Freedom Day’ by four weeks to give the NHS time to vaccinate more adults and prevent the current spike in cases caused by the Indian ‘Delta’ variant resulting in hospitals becoming overwhelmed.
England needs to speed up its Covid vaccine roll-out by 10 per cent to reach the 18.4million needed to meet Boris Johnson’s lockdown easing targets for July 19, MailOnline analysis of NHS England data reveals. Graph shows: How many first and second doses are required in each region in England in order to give all over-18s a first jab and two thirds of adults second jabs
The Office for National Statistics population estimates — provided by the NHS — include over-16s, meaning the MailOnline figures suggested will be slightly higher than in reality.
In order to reach the 15.3million doses by July 19, a rate of 438,009 first and second jabs will have to be dished out every day.
England’s current rate as of June 10 is 390,329 meaning the health service would have to provide a further 47,680 a day. At the current rate, it would not meet the Government’s target until July 25.
London has the most vaccines still needed to meet the target, with a further 2.3million first doses and 1.6million second doses required.
The Midlands needs the second highest amount, with 2million first doses and 670,000 second doses yet to be given out — 2.7million in total.
The South West is closest to meeting the Government’s target, with just 1.1million doses still required, followed by the East of England (1.5million).
But reaching the targets by June 19 will not only require speeding up the roll-out from its current rate but also that supply remains at least at the same levels currently experienced.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan today called on the Government to speed up the roll-out and has requested 367,000 extra Pfizer and Moderna doses for the capital.
Mr Khan told the Evening Standard: ‘Ministers must accelerate the roll-out of the vaccines so that restrictions can be lifted as soon as possible.
‘London has a young population, so it’s essential the Government allocates the capital more Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to allow us to rapidly provide first doses to younger age groups, while bringing forward second doses. This final push will help us to return to doing more of the things we love and to open up our economy.’
All over-18s are expected to be invited for their first Covid vaccine dose by the end of this week, NHS England’s boss claimed today.
Sir Simon Stevens told the NHS Confederation’s annual conference that the health service would ‘finish the job’ of the vaccination programme to the ‘greatest extent possible’ over the next four weeks.
He said he expects all remaining adults to be offered their first vaccine by the end of the week but admitted ‘supply continues to be constrained’.
The vaccine roll-out was extended to all 23- to 24-year-olds today, with people in the age group now able to book their appointment.
Sir Simon said: ‘It is now very important that we use the next four weeks to finish the job to the greatest extent possible for the Covid vaccination programme, which has been a historic signature achievement in terms of the effectiveness of delivering by the NHS — over 60 million doses now administered.
‘By July 19 we aim to have offered perhaps two thirds of adults across the country double jabs.
‘And we’re making great strides also in extending the offer to all adults — today people aged 23 and 24 are able to vaccinate through the National Booking Service.
‘I expect that by the end of this week, we’ll be able to open up the National Booking Service to all adults age 18 and above.
‘Of course, vaccine supply continues to be constrained, so we’re pacing ourselves at precisely the rate of which we’re getting that extra vaccine supply between now and July 19.’
[ad_2]
