Vaccine Deployment Minister explains
why the current vaccine rollout is vitally important for
protecting the healthcare system.
Earlier this week, we saw one of the greatest milestones in
our fightback against this virus, as the number of people
who received their first dose ticked over 10 million, and
has now surpassed 12 million.
We’re now vaccinating at an incredible pace, and during one
hour on Saturday we delivered nearly 1,000 jabs a minute
across the United Kingdom.
The vaccine is our way out of this pandemic, and it is
thanks to the hard work of everyone involved that we have
vaccinated over 90% of over 75s and visited every eligible
care home possible with older residents in England.
From the moment COVID-19 was identified over a year ago,
the global community of researchers, scientists and
manufacturers have concentrated all their expertise and
their efforts into vaccines and treatments so we can beat
this virus.
The emergence of other variants is yet another challenge
they are rising to meet.
Our world-leading genomics capacity has allowed us to
identify these different strains when they have appeared in
the UK. Where we have seen evidence of the South African
variant or other worrying mutations, we have moved to
deploy surge testing to try and stop it spreading any
further.
It is a timely reminder that currently, even with the
vaccine rollout going well, we all need to live by the
national restrictions and act as if we might have the virus
to stop us spreading it.
We have also taken stringent measures to stop new variant
cases coming into the country, with travel bans for over 30
countries identified as having the highest risk of
importing these variants. This is in addition to the
negative test you need to arrive in the country, and the
10-day quarantine you must undertake once you are here.
I know the government is working at speed to introduce a
further measure of enforced hotel quarantine for arrivals
from high-risk countries to introduce yet another barrier
against these variants coming into the UK.
Our brilliant scientists and medical advisers are now
working on the potential for new versions of existing
vaccines to offer further protections against COVID
variants. Last week we announced an agreement with the
manufacture CureVac to allow new varieties of vaccines
based on messenger RNA technology to be developed quickly
and to procure 50 million doses of a new version of a
vaccine, if it is required.
But we should bear in mind that recent studies show the
vaccines being deployed right now across the UK appear to
work well against the COVID-19 variants currently dominant
in the UK. In terms of other variants, not in the UK, we
need to be aware that even where a vaccine has reduced
efficacy in preventing infection there may still be good
efficacy against severe disease, hospitalisation, and
death. This is vitally important for protecting the
healthcare system.
While it is right and necessary to prepare for the
deployment of an updated vaccine, we can take confidence
from the current roll out and the protection it will
provide all of us against this terrible disease.
We are ready to protect our most vulnerable and stay a step
ahead of the virus, whatever it throws at us.
Thanks to the work you’re doing, we’re getting safer every
day. But even though this programme is accelerating
rapidly, this is still a lethal virus that is capable of
causing devastation and disruption.
So while the vaccinators do their work, we must all keep
following the steps that we know make a big difference:
hands, face, space, and if you have symptoms get a test.
