UK Reaches COVID-19 Vaccination Milestone

All people over 50, the clinically vulnerable and health and social workers in the UK have been offered a COVID-19 jab, the British government said Monday.

The target deadline for vaccinating these groups of people had been set as April 15 and the government said in a statement that the second phase of its vaccination program is being prepared.

The number of vaccines administered so far has reached 40 million and people under 50 will be offered the first injection of the vaccine in the coming days.

"We have now passed another hugely significant milestone in our vaccine program by offering jabs to everyone in the nine highest risk groups," said Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a statement.

"That means more than 32 million people have been given the precious protection vaccines provided against COVID-19."

He said the UK "will now move forward with completing essential second doses and making progress towards our target of offering all adults a vaccine by the end of July."

Vaccination for under 50s will start soon, based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) and "this advice will pave the way for the next phase of the vaccination program, which is expected to begin this week."

Over 7 million second doses have now been administered – with a record 475,230 given on Saturday – and "we remain on track to offer a first vaccine to all adults by 31 July," according to the statement.

The UK's daily coronavirus infections dropped further to 3,568 on Monday and another 13 people died with the virus.

The total number of deaths across the country stands at 127,100. -