Over by Spring: Hancock hails Oxford/AstraZeneca jab as part of path to normality
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK could expect to be out of the pandemic by spring after the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab was approved.
Boss of the pharmaceutical firm Pascal Soriot said as many as 2m vaccines could be manufactured each week.
“The vaccine is our way out of this,” the Health Secretary told the BBC.
Read more: Oxford/AstraZeneca jab approved
“Whereas previously I’ve I hoped we’d be out of this by spring, I now have a high degree of confidence we’ll be out of this by spring,” he said.
The vaccine rollout will be stepped up, Hancock promised, with data suggesting that a first jab offers significant immunity from Covid-19 and a booster jab required for longer-term protection.
Soriot meanwhile said that the Government’s rollout target of 1m jabs a week could be beaten.
The UK has pre-ordered 100m doses of the jab, and Soriot said the firm had already produced “millions.”
“It is a massive logistical effort to inject so many people, but we will ramp up deliveries over the next two or three weeks.”