• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • FAQ
  • Meet the Team
  • About The London Economic
  • Advertise
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
NEWSLETTER
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Over half the population should be vaccinated by March, Tony Blair claims

Blair - who has been a loud voice in the UK's vaccine debate - urged ministers to aim for five million jabs per week.

Henry Goodwin by Henry Goodwin
January 6, 2021
in News

More than half the population could be vaccinated by late March, allowing lockdown restrictions to ease “significantly” in February, Tony Blair has claimed.

In a foreword to a new report, the former prime minister – who has intervened vocally in discussions over the UK’s vaccine strategy – said the programme must accelerate “dramatically”, urging the Government to aim for five million people a week.

He told Good Morning Britain the new variant of coronavirus spreading rapidly “means we’ve got to alter our plans for vaccination”.

‘We need to ramp all this up’

In his report, Blair said that by the week after next, AstraZeneca should be able to supply two million vaccines a week, while millions of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab are already in the country.

In February, AstraZeneca has the potential to get up to three million vaccines or more per week, he added.

A further vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, which is due to report final-stage clinical trial results at the end of this month, will go through UK regulatory approval in early February, with the UK having ordered 30 million doses.

Blair said: “The moment it gets approval, Johnson & Johnson is ready to ship vaccines from European production – so it could be an additional supplier in February. In March, it could ramp up further production and have similar output to AstraZeneca.”

RelatedPosts

Asylum seeker with leukaemia living at scandal-hit Barracks as Covid spread through site

‘Grim warning to Boris Johnson’ as support for Welsh Independence at highest ever level

Watch – Presenter wants Harry, Meghan & Archie to lose UK citizenship

PR company founder resigns after ‘blacks, gays or Catholics’ post

He said based on these figures, the Government could be looking at three million doses a week by the end of January, four million a week by the end of February and five million a week by the end of March.

“This would allow us to ease restrictions significantly in February and have a majority of the population vaccinated by the end of the third week of March,” he said.

‘Very hopeful’

Speaking to Good Morning Britain, Blair said the UK must “use every single available bit of capacity in order to make sure these vaccines are used”.

This would involve using community pharmacies as vaccinators alongside retired people and occupational health workers, and using pop-up and mobile vaccination clinics.

“We need to be ramping all of this up, and we just need to go on to a completely different footing with it,” he said.

“There’s really no reason why you need a very complicated system to do it. I get a flu jab every year and I get it at my local pharmacy, it’s not complicated.”

Earlier, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said 99 per cent of deaths could be stopped by vaccinating the top nine priority groups laid down by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

When asked how long it would take to give jabs to those groups, Zahawi said: “I’m very hopeful that by the spring we will get through the nine categories.”

Related: Johnson to appoint ex-Goldman Sachs banker as new BBC chair

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending fromTLE

  • All
  • trending

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

Stress, fear and homelessness: The threat looming over families confronted with eviction

File photo dated 07/11/03 of a prison cell.

The Other Prison Pandemic

Latest from TLE

How To Make: Black Bean Chilli Mince

How To Make: Black Bean Chilli Mince

Set For Life Results Thursday 4th March 2021

Asylum seeker with leukaemia living at scandal-hit Barracks as Covid spread through site

Patel bullying case dropped after settlement but how much did it cost taxpayer?

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: jack@thelondoneconomic.com

Commercial enquiries, please contact: advertise@thelondoneconomic.com

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech & Auto
  • About The London Economic
  • Meet the Team
  • Privacy policy

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.