{"id":118416,"date":"2021-04-13T14:08:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T06:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=118416"},"modified":"2021-04-13T14:08:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T06:08:52","slug":"covid-19-uk-hits-target-to-offer-vaccine-to-all-over-50s-by-mid-april-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=118416","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: UK hits target to offer vaccine to all over-50s by mid-April – govt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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LONDON, April 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain said it had met its target to offer by April 15 a coronavirus vaccine first dose to all over-50s, the clinically vulnerable and health and social care workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have now passed another hugely significant milestone in our vaccine programme by offering jabs to everyone in the nine highest risk groups,\u201d Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All adults over 50, the clinically vulnerable and health care workers have now been offered a shot in the U.K., the Department of Health and Social Care said in an emailed statement on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal was to do so by April 15, and people in their late 40s are expected to be invited to receive vaccines in the \u201ccoming days,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It marks an important milestone in the government\u2019s vaccine rollout, which has exceeded its European neighbors and provided a much-needed lift in a country that has suffered one of the worst death tolls worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will now move forward with completing essential second doses and making progress toward our target of offering all adults a vaccine by the end of July,\u201d Johnson said in the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 40 million shots have been given to more than 32 million people in the U.K., the health department said. The two main vaccines on offer have been AstraZeneca Plc and Pfizer-BioNTech, and a third from Moderna Inc. began to be rolled out last week. All require two doses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shops, gyms, hair salons and outdoor hospitality reopened in England on Monday, but the next stage — reopening indoor hospitality and restarting international travel on May 17 — partly depends on the continued success of the vaccine program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government had set itself the goal of vaccinating the top nine priority groups by mid-April, and it is now up to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization to advise on how the under-50s should be prioritized. This next stage of the program is expected to begin this week, the health department said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government said it remains on course to offer a first shot to all U.K. adults by July 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fears over rare blood clots in younger people as a result of the AstraZeneca vaccine led the committee to recommend those under 30 take an alternative vaccine made by Pfizer or Moderna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials\u00a0stressed<\/a>\u00a0that the vaccine is safe, as fears that a breach in confidence in the shot could be just as detrimental to the program as short supply. For now, polls suggest that confidence in the shot — the backbone of the U.K.\u2019s vaccine program — is holding up. — NNN-AGENCIES
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LONDON, April 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain said it had met its target to offer by April 15 a coronavirus vaccine first dose to all over-50s, the clinically vulnerable and health and social care workers. \u201cWe have now passed another hugely significant milestone in our vaccine programme by offering jabs to everyone in the nine highest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":118420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118416"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/118420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}