Britain is vaccinating 200,00 people a day against COVID-19 and is on course to ramping up immunisations to 2 million a week, the rate needed to cover the most vulnerable by the middle of February, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday.
“At the moment we’re running over 200,000 people being vaccinated every day,” he told Sophie Ridge on Sky News.
“We’ve now vaccinated around a third of the over-80s in this country, so we are making significant progress, but there’s still further expansion to go. This week we are opening mass vaccination centres.”
Britain has been among the countries worst-hit by COVID-19, with the highest death toll in Europe and case numbers repeatedly reaching record highs.
Johnson, who has been criticised for being too slow to introduce strict regulations in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, was not expected to face a large rebellion from his Conservative Party in the vote on the latest lockdown.
But his seeming reluctance to introduce tougher measures quickly to curb a surge in infections and his mixed messages on opening primary schools have prompted criticism, not only in the opposition Labour Party but also among Conservatives.
More than 80,000 people in Britain have died within 28 days of receiving a positive Covid-19 test, the fifth highest official death toll in the world, and over 3 million people have tested positive.
Queen Elizabeth and her husband Philip, both in their nineties, have received vaccinations against Covid-19, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday.
