Coronavirus: Britain’s vaccine booster programme hits snag as Omicron spreads
- Those aged under 40 remain unable to book a third shot of vaccine using the government’s website
- Elsewhere, Austria will end a lockdown for vaccinated people, while EU health bodies have recommended mixing and matching vaccines for the initial and booster doses
Britain’s operation to roll out Covid-19 booster shots to all adults is struggling to pick up speed even as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly across the country.
Fewer UK adults received a third shot of vaccine on Saturday than they did seven days earlier, the day when Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for an increase in the pace of the roll-out.
Regulators authorised booster shots for 18- to 39-year-olds two days later, on November 29. However, those aged under 40 remain unable to book a third shot of vaccine using the government’s website.
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The latest snags in vaccine delivery come after Britain beat many other countries with its inoculation drive. Despite the challenges facing the booster roll-out campaign, the UK has already delivered 30 booster doses per 100 people, more than double than in the United States and the European Union, according to Our World in Data.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament on Monday it was highly likely Britain was seeing community transmission of the new variant, and that Omicron could spread faster than previous variants. A total of 336 cases were already confirmed across the nation, Javid said.
Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London who advises the UK government, told the Times newspaper that Omicron infections may be doubling every three days, or even faster.
Latest statistics from Britain showed that 464,616 boosters were administered on December 4, down from 465,111 the Saturday before.