UK vaccinates over 20 million with two COVID-19 jabs

On May 17, 2021

UK has vaccinated over 20 million adults with two COVID-19 jabs on Sunday, just a day before restrictions are lifted across most of the country.

Health Secretary, Matt Hancock said the vaccine programme had made extraordinary strides in reaching the 20 million mark.

“Receiving a second dose is vital to ensure you have the ultimate protection from this deadly virus,” he added.

He encouraged people to come forward to book their jab as soon as they were offered it.

According to government statistics, 20,103,658 million have now received their full two vaccine doses which is the 3.2 percent of the adult population.

Over 36,573,354 have received their first jab with a total of 56,677,012 million vaccines administered since the start of the UK’s campaign on December 8.

Vaccines Minister, Nadhim Zahawi said, the development was another incredible milestone.

“It is inspiring to see the incredible public response to our call to arms to get the jab. We have one the highest vaccine uptake rates in the world, but our work is not done yet.”

Britain, one of the first countries in the world to begin a mass COVID-19 vaccine campaign, opted to delay giving the second vaccine dose until 12 weeks after the first dose instead of after four weeks as was done in clinical trials.

To counter the new strain the government has said it will accelerate the rollout of second vaccines doses to over 50s and the clinically vulnerable, cutting the interval since the first jab to eight weeks.

Kamila/Channels