By Two million vaccine doses set to be supplied each week from mid-January
Two million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are set to be supplied each week by the middle of January, according to a report, despite a warning from England’s chief medical officer about shortages.
530,000 doses are ready to be distributed from Monday, following on from the earlier launch of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which was approved in late December.
The Times quoted what it described as a key member of the AstraZeneca team saying that one million doses will be ready next week.
The source reportedly said:
“The plan is then to build it up fairly rapidly, by the third week of January we should get to two million a week”.
On Friday, Professor Chris Whitty said the UK needs to urgently maximise the number of people who are vaccinated, but a lack of global supplies will likely hinder efforts to protect the nation in the first part of 2021.
A letter signed by Professor Whitty and the chief medical officers for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, read:
“We have to ensure that we maximise the number of eligible people who receive the vaccine”.
“Currently, the main barrier to this is vaccine availability, a global issue, and this will remain the case for several months and, importantly, through the critical winter period”.
“Vaccine shortage is a reality that cannot be wished away”.
However, Pfizer and AstraZeneca were both reported as saying there is no problem with supply, saying millions of doses have already been delivered.
On Thursday, the UK’s chief medical officers backed a change in guidance which says booster jabs should be given up to 12 weeks after an initial dose to maximise the number of people being vaccinated.
But the announcement on Wednesday prompted concern from Pfizer, with a spokesperson saying:
“There are no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose is sustained after 21 days”.
Photo: Dado Ruvic/Reuters.
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