By: RadhakrishnaNS
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Tuesday that the rapid drop in COVID-19 deaths was largely down to a three-month lockdown, not the vaccination programme, and that cases would rise once again as restrictions ease.
The UK launched its inoculation drive in December and has already offered a first shot to all over-50s, the clinically vulnerable and health workers. The country is behind only Israel in the proportion of its population to have received at least one dose.
That rollout was however followed a month later by a third lockdown in early January to tackle surging infections driven by the “Kent” variant of the virus. Since February, daily infection numbers, hospitalisations and deaths have all dropped sharply.
“The bulk of the work in reducing the disease has been done by the lockdown,” Johnson said on Tuesday, adding there was no reason to change the roadmap for reopening the economy.
“As we unlock the result will inevitably be that we will see more infections and sadly we will see more hospitalizations and deaths.”
With conditions improving, England reopened all retail, hairdressers, gyms and pub gardens on Monday and Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are due to reopen different elements of their societies in the coming weeks.
The vaccine rollout also got a boost on Tuesday when Moderna became the third vaccine to be offered in England after AstraZeneca and one from Pfizer-BioNTech .
That will help keep Britain on track to hit its target of offering all adults a vaccine by the end of July.
Moderna, already offered in the United States and Europe, uses the same mRNA technology as Pfizer’s shots but can be stored at normal fridge temperatures unlike its rival U.S. vaccine, which must be kept and shipped at ultra-low temperatures.
