|
 Britain
is quickly rolling out vaccines and has been the second quickest
country in the world to give a first COVID-19 shot to at least half
its adult population.
The government is already assessing the possible need for a third
COVID-19 vaccine dose for the elderly and vulnerable, to be given in
the autumn, after all adults are given their initial two-shot
regime.
"The clinicians haven't yet made their decision when they will need
to boost, whether to give more immunity to the most vulnerable, to
increase the durability of the protection, or to deal with a
variant," Zahawi told Sky News.
Asked by the BBC about a Times newspaper report that over-50s would
be targeted with the booster shots, Zahawi reiterated that no
decisions had been taken.
Last week a Public Health England official said that any booster
programme would be led by the need to protect against against
variants, as high levels of protection offered by the current shots
looked unlikely to wane quickly.
[to top of second column] |
In order to boost research into vaccines against new variants,
Britain said it would invest a further 30 million pounds ($41.67
million) into laboratory facilities at Porton Down.
When completed, the labs will be able to test 3,000 blood samples a
week for antibodies generated by vaccines.
Previously the government had committed 20 million pounds to
increase capacity to 1,500 weekly samples from 700 by January 2022.
Health minister Matt Hancock said that the investment would "enable
us to further future-proof the country from the threat of new
variants."
($1 = 0.7199 pounds)
(Reporting by Andy Bruce and Alistair Smout; editing by Guy
Faulconbridge)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content |
