Britain steps up vaccinations as coronavirus cases surge, worst weeks still to come
A woman receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a former nightclub that has been turned into a NHS vaccination centre for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Batchwood Hall in St Albans, Britain, January 8, 2021
The British government has started a major expansion of COVID-19 vaccinations and COVID-19 tests being made available more widely to people as part of efforts to control the rapid spread of a new coronavirus variant, which has led to Britain hitting the grim milestone of 81,000 deaths from the virus.
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The UK government’s chief medical adviser has said that the next few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic will be the worst as the new highly infectious variants of the virus rampage across the country.
"The next few weeks are going to be the worst weeks of this pandemic in terms of numbers into the NHS (National Health Service)," Chris Whitty said. "What we need to do before the vaccines have had their effect, because it will take several weeks before that happens, we need to really double down."
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"Anybody who is not shocked by the number of people in hospital who are seriously ill at the moment and who are dying over the course of this pandemic, I think, has not understood this at all. This is an appalling situation," he told BBC TV.
In a bid to get on top of the pandemic and to try to restore some degree of normality by the spring, Britain is planning the country's largest ever vaccination programme, shots initially offered to all those in its top four priority categories - about 15 million people - by the middle of next month.
Having become the first country to approve vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and by Oxford-AstraZeneca, Britain will open seven large-scale vaccination centres as it seeks to reach a target of offering shots to 15 million people by the middle of next month.
"The vaccinations are really beginning to ramp up, 200,000 a day, we've done an incredible job this past week," vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News, saying they would offer shots to those in the highest risk levels, the eldest and frontline health workers, by February 15.
More than 81,400 people in the United Kingdom have died within 28 days of receiving a positive COVID-19 test, the fifth-highest official death toll globally.
On Friday, London's Mayor warned the British capital's hospitals were in danger of being overwhelmed by COVID patients, and ministers and health chiefs have pleaded with people to respect lockdown measures and stay at home unless it was essential to go out.
"We have got to be able to maintain this for several more weeks now," said Whitty, adding it would require "significant action" until sometime in the spring.
"We are now very close to the point, with the vaccinations, where we are able to get on top of this, but it is not yet."
There have been calls for the government to take tougher action against those who break the rules, such as refusing to wear masks in supermarkets, amid concern the disease is being spread by shoppers in the stores.
"These rules are not boundaries to be pushed against. These rules are there to try and make sure we bring this virus under control," Zahawi said.
(With inputs from agencies)