Vaccination gives UK hope of lifting curbs
Britain yesterday closed in on a mid-February target to offer coronavirus vaccinations to 15 million of the most vulnerable people in the UK, raising hopes it could lead to restrictions being eased.
More than 13.5 million people have been given a jab since the country's biggest-ever immunisation programme began in early December, with a daily average of 431,232 receiving a vaccine last week.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to offer jabs to all those in its top four priority groups -- which includes over-70s, care home residents and some key workers -- by the end of this week.
The devolved government in Wales, which controls its own health policy, said it will reach its target of vaccinating the top four categories.
Figures showed nearly 22 percent of people in Wales have been vaccinated, compared to 20.3 percent in England, 19.2 percent in Scotland and 18.7 percent in Northern Ireland.
The UK government in London, which is responsible for sourcing vaccines, is next aiming to have offered jabs to all over-50s by May and the entire adult population by September.
Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford said the successful vaccine rollout combined with falling infection rates could soon allow for some restrictions to be lifted "carefully and cautiously".
"We can see a path into the spring where it will be possible for us to go back to doing some of the things that we're all missing so much," he told the BBC.
REOPENING 'ROADMAP'
Infection rates have dropped markedly across Britain over recent weeks, as strict lockdown measures have curbed previously spiralling case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths.
That has prompted calls for the stay-at-home rules to be lifted in early March.
Johnson has vowed to review all relevant data next week, ahead of setting out the government's "roadmap" for reopening the following week.
Ministers have said ensuring the return of in-person schooling for some students will be the immediate priority.
Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, one of the government's most high-profile scientific advisers, said Britain was now "in a better place than I might have anticipated a month ago".
Johnson will "have some bandwidth" to start reopening primary schools in March before potentially easing other restrictions the following month, he said.
But he cautioned against moving too hastily, reports AFP.
DEATHS IN AFRICA JUMP
The World Health Organisation said yesterday deaths from Covid-19 in Africa surged by 40 percent over the last month, as the continent's toll approaches 100,000.
"Over 22,300 deaths were reported in Africa in the last 28 days, compared with nearly 16,000 deaths in the previous 28 days," said the WHO Africa office based in the Republic of the Congo capital Brazzaville.
"This comes as Africa battles new, more contagious variants and gears up for its largest-ever vaccination drive," the UN agency said in a statement after a virtual press conference.
The first coronavirus infections in Africa were detected in February last year. More than 3.7 million cases have been recorded since, with 96,000 deaths, according to the latest figures released by WHO Africa on Thursday.
"The continent is expected to reach 100,000 deaths in the coming days," the WHO added.
MELBOURNE LOCKDOWN
More than six million people were ordered into a snap, five-day lockdown yesterday to contain a new coronavirus outbreak in Australia's second most populous state, forcing the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne to shut fans out.
The lockdown across Victoria state from midnight (1300 GMT) was ordered out of fear a small outbreak of the "hyper-infectious" UK strain of the virus would undo Australia's so-far successful battle to contain the pandemic, Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said.
It dealt another blow to the year's first Grand Slam, which started three weeks late to allow international players to quarantine and had already welcomed tens of thousands of socially distanced fans in the biggest crowds seen in tennis since the pandemic.
Hungary yesterday become the first EU nation to start using Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, the country's chief medical officer said.
In US, President Joe Biden announced plans to vaccinate most Americans by the end of July with the help of 200 million newly acquired doses, as the country's inoculation campaign kicked off a new phase in drugstores and supermarket pharmacies yesterday.
The deals with Pfizer and Moderna, which the administration had announced it was seeking last month, increase the country's total vaccine supply by fifty percent, to 600 million doses.
"Just this afternoon, we signed ... final contracts for 100 million more Moderna and 100 million more Pfizer vaccines," Biden said after touring the National Institutes of Health near Washington.
Comments