2.4 million coronavirus jabs have been administered across the UK, the prime minister has said.
Speaking from a vaccination centre in Bristol, Boris Johnson said: “Today, I think I can confirm that we’ve done roughly 40% of the 80-year-olds in this country already.
“We’ve done about 23% of the elderly residents of care homes.”
Seven new mass vaccination sites in England have been opened today, joining hundreds more GP sites and a small number of new pharmacy-led centres opening this week.
Officials are racing to vaccinate as many people as possible while COVID-19 cases continue to rise and hospitals come under extreme pressure.
Mr Johnson continued: “As I speak to you today, we’ve done about two million people, maybe a bit more, about 2.4 million jabs all in, I think, across the whole of the UK.”
He added the NHS would be “ramping that up massively” in a bid to reach the government’s target of offering a first dose of a COVID vaccine to 15 million of the most vulnerable people by 15 February.
Asked how bad the current situation in the UK is, the prime minister said we are at a “very perilous moment”.
He said the vaccine roll-out could lull people into a “false confidence” and “false complacency”, but we should continue to follow the restrictions because “we have a really tough fight on our hands”.
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Separately, NHS England’s chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has said 2.5 million jabs have been given across the UK, including 2.3 million in England.
He said there had been “another very significant acceleration in the number of vaccines given last week”, with the speed of vaccination tripling over the last week.
Downing Street earlier revealed the prime minister’s father, Stanley Johnson, appears to be among the early wave of people to get two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine before a change in policy.
Now, people have to wait longer for their second dose, as the government aims to get a first dose into as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
The prime minister’s press secretary, Allegra Stratton, said: “It’s not something I’ve spoken to Stanley Johnson about, but by way of explanation in the early days of the vaccination programme it was the case that GPs were doing two jabs, a first one followed a few weeks later by a second one.
“It appears that Stanley Johnson was one of those people who was in that first wave.
“It’s been true of a number of individuals around the country and Stanley Johnson appears to be one of them.”
Downing Street also said the government would continue to keep England’s lockdown measures under review.
Asked whether ministers were planning to bring in even tighter restrictions, a Number 10 spokesman said: “As you would expect and as we have done throughout pandemic, we look through the latest data and statistical information.
“We continue to look at that data and to monitor it and keep our measures under review.”
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