Almost 140,000 Britons have been vaccinated against coronavirus in the first seven days of the roll out, officials claimed today amid mounting pressure on Number 10 to publish the numbers.
Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi said 137,897 people have had Pfizer/BioNTech’s jab so far, including 108,000 in England, 18,000 in Scotland, 7,897 in Wales and 4,000 in Northern Ireland.
Mr Zahawi — who was only able to provide precise figures for Wales — said this was a ‘really good start’ and promised more people would get the jab when more centres opened.
Department of Health bosses later repeated Mr Zahawi’s claim and failed to provide exact counts for anywhere except Wales. Officials insisted the tally was ‘provisional and subject to change’. Matt Hancock said: ‘This is just the start.’
The UK’s largest ever vaccination programme began on December 8, with the Health Secretary promising ‘millions’ would get the jab before the end of the year in hope of finally ending the pandemic.
But at the current speed it will take another six weeks for one million people to get vaccinated.
The first week of Britain’s vaccine roll-out saw fifty hospitals geared up to administer doses. GP practices and a handful of purpose-built inoculation clinics started to give out jabs yesterday.
The programme has already been swamped by IT glitches forcing many doctors to turn to pen and paper, it was claimed today. When some doctors tried to log jabs in the system they received an ‘infrastructure issue’ message, leaving them unable to digitally record vaccinations.
A Government source told Politico that ‘no one has a f***ing clue’ how many Britons have received the jab, amid fury over the lack of statistics.
The Department of Health has now pledged to publish weekly figures on the exact number of Britons who have been vaccinated against coronavirus like they do for flu, starting from next week.
It comes after a report by the National Audit Office warned half of Britons may not get vaccinated by the end of next year, as plans assume only 25million will get the jab.
Almost 140,000 Britons have been vaccinated against the virus. Pictured: A patient receives the first of two injections with a dose of the Pfizer/BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine in Hyde, Greater Manchester, today
The vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi revealed the number on Twitter today, but only provided a precise figure for Wales
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has revealed how many people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in the first seven days of the programme
In other coronavirus news today:
- Ministers say five-day festive bubbles will not be cancelled but urge families to ‘think carefully’;
- New Covid-19 strain has ‘striking’ amount of mutations on spike protein it uses to invade cells, scientists say;
- Clean up begins after Londoners hit pubs and bars before capital moved into Tier Three last night;
- Ethnic minorities are less likely to get the vaccine despite being at greater risk, study finds;
- Changes to tiers are expected to be announced today, with ministers saying some counties could be split;
- Dido Harding’s deputy in Test and Trace was forced to seek a psychiatrist six weeks ago after ‘losing it’ because of the chaos surrounding the scheme;
- Rapid Covid-19 tests may be offered to schools in a bid to drive down cases.
The figures suggests just 0.2 per cent of the 66million Britons have been vaccinated between December 8, when the first shots were delivered, and December 15.
Experts say at least 60 per cent of the country need to have been vaccinated against the virus to achieve ‘herd immunity’, when the virus is unable to spread through the population and infect the most vulnerable.
Mr Zahawi published the vaccination figures on Twitter, and promised: ‘That number will increase as we have (prepared) hundreds of PCN (primary care networks).’
He added: ‘Transparency is vital as we deliver vaccines across the UK.
‘For now these figures are provisional. From next week, we will begin to publish weekly figures on the number of vaccines administered.’
Responding to the figures, Matt Hancock said: ‘Thanks to the hard work of the NHS across the UK over 137,000 people have already received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
‘This is just the start and we will steadily expand our vaccination programme – ultimately helping everyone get back to normal life.’
Conservative MP Nigel Huddleston tweeted: ‘Nearly 140,000 vaccinations in the first seven days. A great start…’
The speed of vaccinations is likely to pick up in the coming days, experts said, as more surgeries start delivering the life saving jabs.
The Oxford Covid-19 vaccine is also expected to get the green light from regulators in the coming days, which could make it possible for a faster roll out of the vaccine because it does not need to be stored at -70C, unlike Pfizer’s jab.
The UK has ordered more than 100million doses of the jab, with around 4million ready to be delivered once they get the go ahead from regulators.
Mr Hancock promised last week that the Pfizer jab would be rolled out to ‘millions by the end of the year’.
But the scheme has already run into problems after many GP surgeries suffered failures in their Pinnacle IT system, used for noting down jabs, reports the i.
Some are also still waiting for training on how to use the system while others still haven’t received fridges vital for storing the vaccine at a low temperature after it is thawed.
A driver waits for their Covid-19 vaccination at a centre in Hyde, Greater Manchester, today
Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP in Oxford, told the newspaper her surgery had been forced to delay vaccinations by a day to Friday because of a lack of training and fridges for storing the vials.
‘We haven’t been shown how to use Pinnacle and a lot of colleagues have said the system has already crashed,’ she said.
‘We don’t have the bar scanners we need to enter who’s had the first doses on the system either. We also don’t have the fridges to keep the vaccine in that we were told we’d be getting.’
She said they have been told the delays are due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’.
A GP has said the vaccination figures may have taken a week to release because they are being recorded on the same system as the flu vaccine.
‘That dumps data into the medical record (using the Mesh system),’ they said.
‘So, GP records will be updated overnight, and national flu data is collated each week (collected Sunday, and published Tuesday).’
A Department of Health spokesman insisted today they would publish data on a weekly basis, after the first figures were released on Twitter.
‘Tens of thousands of people across the UK have already been vaccinated, with 70 hospitals and more than 100 GP-led centres offering the jab to those most in need,’ they said yesterday.
‘This is the biggest immunisation programme in our country’s history and the collection of data is crucial to our understanding of uptake, impact and future planning.’
NHS England said yesterday: ‘There has been an excellent start to Primary Care Network vaccinating this week. Emis (which owns Pinnacle) has confirmed that their system go-slow lasted less than 30 minutes and is fully resolved.’
The UK was the first western country to approve a jab against coronavirus last week, after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) gave it the green light.
Regulators in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have also approved the Covid-19 vaccine.
Dr Kit Yates, a mathematician at Bath University, claimed yesterday the failure to be transparent with the figures felt ‘like a massive own goal’.
He tweeted: ‘It is clearly important to know how many people have been vaccinated from a public health stand point. Why wouldn’t the Government want to publicise these good news figures on a dashboard?’
Officials were concerned about Covid-19 vaccine uptake due to a wave of anti-vaxx conspiracy theories being peddled on social media. A number of major surveys pre-roll out suggested up to one in five Britons would refuse to take it.
Britain became the first country in the world to approve a Covid-19 vaccine for mass roll-out this month, after regulators pored over a mountain of data to confirm it was safe and effective.
The Army-backed mission to get inoculate millions of the country’s most vulnerable people kicked off on December 8, with 91-year-old grandmother Margaret Keenan becoming the first person in the world to receive the injection.
Fifty NHS hospitals were geared up to give the first batch of doses to over-80s and care home staff. Leftover supplies — which have to be used within five days of being taken out of ultra-cold freezers and thawed — are given to frontline NHS workers.
But the scheme has already suffered hiccups, with care home residents supposed to be the first in line to get vaccinated.
The challenge of getting Pfizer/BioNTech’s jab — the only vaccine officials have approved so far — into care homes meant vulnerable residents lost their place at the top of the queue.
Currently the vaccines are only being deployed at hospitals and GP surgeries, due to logistical and regulatory problems in storing and distributing Pfizer’s jab.
Hundreds of people massed in Parliament Square on Monday after protest group StandUp X sent out a call for another demonstration
Anti-vaxx protesters massed in London on Monday as it was announced the capital would be put into Tier Three restrictions
Dr Kit Yates, co-director of the Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Bath, said yesterday the failure to be transparent with the figures felt ‘like a massive own goal’
Celebrity chef Prue Leith, 80, uploaded a picture of a male nurse giving her the Pfizer/BioNTech injection yesterday morning
ETHNIC MINORITIES ARE SIGNIFICANTLY LESS LIKELY TO TAKE COVID-19 VACCINE
People from minority ethnic backgrounds or with lower incomes are significantly less likely to take the coronavirus vaccine despite being at much greater risk of the disease, research suggests.
Three-quarters (76 per cent) of the British public would take a Covid-19 jab if advised to by their GP or health professional, according to polling for the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH).
This fell to 57 per cent of people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who would be likely to, compared with 79 per cent of white respondents.
Confidence was lowest among respondents of Asian ethnicity, with 55 per cent likely to say yes to a jab.
The RSPH said there was an issue with anti-vaccination messages being ‘targeted at different groups, including different ethnic or religious communities’, adding that these groups ‘continue to be most at risk of getting ill and most at risk of dying’.
And 70 per cent of the lowest earners were likely to say yes to a vaccine, compared with 84 per cent of the highest earners.
Some 2,076 UK adults were polled by Yonder between December 4 and 6.
Men were more likely to get the jab than women, and 14 per cent of Londoners said they would be ‘very unlikely’ to get vaccinated – the highest proportion in the UK.
Overall, just 8 per cent of those surveyed said they would be very unlikely to take a coronavirus vaccine.
The vaccine has to be kept at -70C in special freezers which most care facilities do not have and medics were not currently allowed to divide the batches of 975 vials which they are shipped in.
Care staff and Brits over 80 have instead been prioritised. Elderly care home residents, who are deemed most at risk of suffering complications of the disease, won’t get it until closer to Christmas.
In Scotland, care home residents began to get the vaccine on Monday as its mass immunisation plans got off the ground this week.
And on Monday it was revealed that some GP surgeries in England who were due to start rolling out the vaccine that their deliveries would be delayed.
Health chiefs last week said that all 50 hospitals in England which received the initial batches of the vaccines were expected to give out at least 975 doses in the first week.
That would suggest at least 48,750 shots would be dished out in the first week of the operation, which Mr Hancock described as ‘the largest-scale vaccination campaign in our country’s history’.
Labour last week piled pressure on ministers to publish regular data on the Covid-19 vaccination scheme.
But Department of Health chiefs were unable to confirm exactly how many Brits had been vaccinated when asked last week.
The Government agency — headed by Mr Hancock — yesterday told MailOnline it was ‘still expecting to publish regular numbers’. And officials have yet to respond to this website’s request today for further information.
It comes amid an ongoing transparency row about the way Number 10 presents its Covid data.
No10 came under fire for ‘cherry-picking’ gloomy modelling and presenting scary charts to the public to justify going into the second national lockdown.
Top experts have also complained about a lack of ‘objective criteria’ used to decide which areas warrant being put in tough lockdown Tiers.
And the failure to keep the public updated with the vaccination scheme comes amid growing anti-vaxx concerns, with protesters yesterday clashing with police in central London.
StandUp X — which arranged the march — says that ‘forced, coerced and mandated’ vaccinations will see humanity become ‘a mass science experiment profiting billions for pharmaceutical companies and their partners including Bill Gates’.
Officials have repeatedly sought to assure vaccine-hesitant members of the public that the jab is safe.
Britain’s medical regulator gave Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine the seal of approval at unprecedented speed.
Within a fortnight of final trials of the jab wrapping up, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) gave it a good safety rating.
This process normally takes years as regulators need to wait for the full data to be published before scrutinising the findings.
But the process was condensed for Covid, with the MHRA allowed to conduct a ‘rolling review’, analysing data from Pfizer’s studies in real time. The same review process is being used for Oxford University’s promising vaccine, which could be approved in days.
Concerns about Pfizer’s vaccine’s safety were stoked when America’s top Covid doctor, Anthony Fauci, accused the MHRA of cutting corners to approve the jab first.
But the MHRA strongly disputed the claims. And the US has now approved the vaccine, too. GREAT
GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, 94, SAYS REFUSING COVID-19 JAB WOULD BE ‘VERY SILLY’ AFTER RECEIVING HER VACCINATION
Great-grandmother Joyce Dowd, 94, said it would be ‘very silly’ to refuse the Covid-19 vaccine. She received her first shot today in Doncaster, South Yorkshire
A 94-year-old great-great grandmother has said people will be ‘very silly’ if they turn down the chance to have a Covid-19 vaccine, after she became one of the first wave of pensioners to receive the jab.
Joyce Dowd said she hopes the vaccination she had at a new GP-run centre in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, will mean she will soon be able to see her great-great grandchild, who was born during the pandemic, for the first time.
She has another great-great grandchild – her fourth – due in February.
But Mrs Dowd, who lives in the Hexthorpe area of Doncaster, said she will not see the infants until she is sure it is safe.
‘I’ll see them when times are good,’ she said. ‘I’d rather them be safe and keep away because it’s asking for trouble, isn’t it You’ve got to think safety-wise because it’s no good if you don’t.’
Mrs Dowd said she felt fine after having the jab at around 8am on Wednesday.
She said: ‘It feels a little bit stiff but it doesn’t hurt. There’s no worries to it. If people don’t have it done, they’re being very silly. At our age you can pick anything up.’
Mrs Dowd lives by herself and was brought to the centre, which is just outside Doncaster town centre, by one of her neighbours.
She said she has one daughter, four grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren, but has decided not to mix with her family at Christmas.
‘I’d rather them be safe and keep away because it’s asking for trouble,’ she said.
Mrs Dowd said she is looking forward to when the family can get together, but added: ‘I hope they don’t all come at once.’
Dr Kate Mansfield, who is a GP at the Scott Practice in Doncaster and the clinical director of Doncaster Central Primary Care Network, said: ‘It’s been a bit of a crazy week. It’s been amazing to see just how hard everybody’s been working. I’m just so proud to be part of it, just seeing how dedicated everybody is.
‘The hours and hard work that people have been putting in to get this going is unbelievable.’
Dr Mansfield said a lot of work has taken place to ensure the seven practices involved in the network are able to continue offering a normal service alongside the vaccine rollout.
She said: ‘It’s a busy time of year anyway for us now. It’s been difficult. It’s been a massive challenge. But I’m just so pleased how it’s come together.’
Dr Mansfield said 975 jabs will be administered at the centre over the next three days.
‘They all seem very keen and excited and pleased that they’re in that first batch,’ she said. ‘It’s an exciting day, it really is.’
Dr Mansfield said she is keen to reassure everyone about the safety of the vaccine and encourage a high take-up of it.
She said: ‘I feel like it’s our role to put the true facts out there as we know them and give people the right information so that they can make an informed decision. I know I’ll be having the vaccine and I’ll be encouraging my family to have the vaccine.’
Two GP-led primary care networks have now started vaccinating in Doncaster with three others expected to go live in the coming weeks.