LONDON (CU)_The United Kingdom on Saturday (Jan 30) administered COVID-19 vaccines to a record number of 598,389 people, government figures show.
This brought the total number of those vaccinated to 8,977,329, with 491,053 of them having had a second dose.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was “delighted” of the numbers, which meant three-quarters of those aged 75 to 79 and four-fifths of those over 80 had now been vaccinated.
He noted that each vaccine “brings us one step closer to normal”, and expressed his gratitude towards “everybody who’s involved in making this happen”.
However, on Sunday, the UK reported a further 587 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID test, bringing the total number of virus-induced fatalities to 106,158.
Meanwhile, Dr Susan Hopkins, Public Health England’s COVID strategy chief, says the current Coronavirus lockdown in England must end “very slowly, very cautiously”.
Accordingly, the health secretary predicted “a happy and free Great British summer”, despite “a tough few months” ahead, as national restrictions continue across the UK, while vaccines are being administered.
This vaccine record in the UK comes after a week which saw a row with the European Union over vaccine distribution, with the bloc attempting to trigger an emergency provision in the Brexit deal in order to control COVID vaccine exports from the EU.
The move, which could have seen checks at the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland to prevent vaccine shipments entering the UK, was however reversed, following widespread criticism from London, Dublin and Belfast.
International Trade Secretary Liz Truss later said the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen had assured Prime Minister Boris Johnson that “there will be no disruption of contracts that we have with any producer in the EU”.
Despite comments from various experts that the situation in British hospitals has “stabilised”, however, this is expected to be another very hard year for NHS staff, with new, more transmissible and more deadly variants of the virus being discovered in various parts of the world.
