Research: Two million vaccinations per week to avoid a third wave

Britain needs to vaccinate two million people a week against the coronavirus to avoid a third wave of the epidemic, according to research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

More than 2.3 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the country so far and more than 71,000 deaths from the disease as of Monday, according to a report by Reuters.

“The most stringent intervention scenario – with the whole of England at alert level 4, schools closed throughout January and 2 million people being vaccinated every week – is the only one we believe will be able to reduce the burden on units. intensive care below the levels we saw in the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic, “the report said.

“If there is no mass vaccination, the number of cases, hospitalizations, admissions to intensive care units and deaths in 2021 may exceed that recorded in 2020,” it said.
The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the government’s scientific advisers announced that a new mutant strain of the coronavirus, much more contagious, is spreading rapidly in the country. This resulted in stricter restrictive measures in London and the south-east of England.

The media reported over the weekend that Britain will start vaccinating with the AstraZeneca vaccine from January 4 onwards, as its approval by the country’s regulatory authority is expected in the coming days.

In December, Britain became the first country in the world to authorize the use of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, while on Thursday the British government announced that more than 600,000 people in the country had received the first dose of the vaccine.

Source: Reuters