UK hits 2.3M vaccinated as Boris Johnson warns of ‘complacency’

LONDON — The U.K. has given 2.6 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to 2.3 million people, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday, as the government published its full vaccination plan.

Ministers plan to open 50 mass vaccination centers to operate alongside 1,200 local sites led by general practitioners or pharmacists, and 206 hospital sites. Seven large-scale centers opened Monday. By the end of the month, Hancock said, everyone in the country would have a vaccine site within 10 miles of their home, or — for some in rural areas — within reach of a mobile vaccine team.

The U.K. switched vaccine strategies two weeks ago to deliver a first dose to as many people as possible before moving on to second doses, although some have already received a second dose under the previous approach.  

Four groups are being prioritized, including the over 70s, health and care staff, care home residents and the clinically extremely vulnerable. Hancock said 2 in 5 people over the age of 80 had now received their first dose, and almost 1 in 4 “older care home residents.”

But amid a continued surge in the number of COVID-19 patients admitted to U.K. hospitals, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the vaccine rollout must not breed “complacency” among the public over the country’s national lockdown rules.

The U.K. is still recording high numbers of infections every day, largely driven by a new variant of coronavirus first detected in the country late last year which is significantly more transmissible. The NHS is under greater pressure than at any point during the pandemic, with 32,294 people now in hospital with COVID across the U.K, Hancock said.

NHS England’s medical director Stephen Powis, speaking alongside Hancock at a Downing Street press conference, said that with hospital admissions typically occurring around two weeks after transmission of coronavirus, the U.K. was “still to see the full impact” of infections that would have spread when rules were temporarily loosened to allow household mixing at Christmas.

“In short … this is an extremely serious moment for the country,” he added. “And as good news as the vaccine is, it cannot be seen by any of us as a free pass to ignore the national guidance.”

Amid calls for further restrictions to drive down infection rates, Hancock said he would not rule out adding additional measures to current lockdown rules, but ruled out scrapping so-called support “bubbles,” which allow single-person households or people who need help with certain caring responsibilities to link up with one other household.

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