Liz Truss says ‘too early’ to talk of UK giving excess Covid vaccines to other countries

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss has said it is too early to talk about the UK giving excess coronavirus vaccine doses to other countries. 

She insisted the government was committed to its plan to vaccinate every adult by the autumn.  

But she said it was in Britain’s best interests to ensure other countries also had large numbers of jabs – to halt the spread of the virus around the world.  

Yesterday her cabinet colleague Michael Gove said the UK wanted to “help” the EU, which is struggling with delays to its supply of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.

Ms Truss told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge programme: “What we know about the vaccination programme is this is a global problem and we need a global solution.

“We’re only going to be able to deal with this disease if we get everybody vaccinated across the world.

“It’s vital we work together, it’s vital we keep borders open and we resist vaccine nationalism, and we resist protectionism.”

Ms Truss also said the government was “on track” to meet its target to vaccinate everyone in care homes by the end of today.  

But she declined to rule out that some social distancing measures will have to remain in place for the rest of the year.

“I don’t want to make predictions about the situation in the autumn, I think it’s far too far away,” she said.  

“Long-term predictions in what is a very, very unpredictable situation are not wise.”