The UK has passed the peak of its latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic, officials said, as the country reached the milestone of vaccinating 10 million people, about 15 per cent of the population. “We are on a downward slope of cases, hospitalisations and deaths,” Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Wednesday. “This peak, at least, we are past.” But Whitty, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said infections were still widespread and the state-run National Health Service would be “back in trouble extraordinarily fast” if social restrictions are lifted. Britain’s immunisation programme – the most successful so far in Europe – puts the country on track to provide shots to 15 million citizens and carers at greatest risk from the disease by February 15. Johnson said it will only be possible to begin easing the lockdown three weeks after that date, once those vaccinated have received the benefits of the immunisation. Britain’s coronavirus hero Captain Tom Moore dies aged 100 Johnson, who will publish a plan for relaxing the curbs on February 22, said there are “signs of hope” but warned the number of people with the disease is still “alarmingly high”. A further 1,322 deaths were reported Wednesday. Johnson is under mounting pressure to ease restrictions from lockdown sceptics in his own party who fear shutting up businesses and schools will inflict lasting scars on the economy and society. News that vaccines are effective at cutting transmission of the disease has fuelled their argument. “With better and better news by the day on the vaccination roll out and its effectiveness, the government has got to start addressing its mind to the harms caused by the measures we’re putting in place,” said Mark Harper, chairman of the so-called Covid Recovery Group of Conservative members of Parliament. “Lockdowns and restrictions cause immense damage to people’s health and livelihoods, and we need to lift them as soon as it is safe to do so.” Johnson has promised to review the pandemic response after the priority groups have been given vaccines. Schools will be the first facilities to reopen in England, starting no earlier than March 8 under the government’s plans. Meanwhile, Oxford University announced on Thursday it will launch a medical trial alternating doses of Covid-19 vaccines created by different manufacturers, the first study of its kind. Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine works against UK and South Africa variants, firms say The trial will show whether different Covid doses – those created by the AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech pharmaceutical companies – can be used interchangeably to allow greater flexibility in pressured vaccine delivery schedules. The British government’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, said the trial would offer “greater insight” into the use of vaccines against Covid-19. “Given the inevitable challenges of immunising large numbers of the population against Covid-19 and potential global supply constraints, there are definite advantages to having data that could support a more flexible immunisation programme,” Van-Tam said. “It is also even possible that by combining vaccines, the immune response could be enhanced giving even higher antibody levels that last longer,” he added. The 13-month study will compare different combinations of prime and booster doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines at intervals of four and 12 weeks. Britain, the first Western nation to launch its vaccination programme, has bucked the international trend by administering vaccines at an interval of 12 weeks in a bid to give a first dose of the vaccine to more individuals. Disagreements between the UK and the European Union over vaccine supplies have boiled over in recent weeks with Brussels moving to restrict vaccine exports to Northern Ireland on Thursday before the plans were abandoned in a swift U-turn. Boris Johnson takes ‘full responsibility’ as Britain’s deaths top 100,000 In the following days, EU member states and the European Commission have continued to criticise the English-Swedish drugs manufacturer AstraZeneca over slow vaccine delivery and the efficacy of the jab has also been called into question. On Wednesday, the British government seized on a separate study that said the AstraZeneca vaccine – which was developed in partnership with Oxford University – significantly reduces virus transmission and is highly protective after a single dose. AstraZeneca and Oxford University said vaccines against new developing coronavirus variants should be ready by October. Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse