By Caribbean News Global 
LONDON, England – Prime minister Boris Johnson at the coronavirus press conference on February 15, announced that the national vaccination programme continues to power past the target set six weeks ago with more than 15 million people vaccinated across the UK.
“Once again I pay tribute to the astonishing efforts of everyone involved – the GPs, the nurses, the volunteers, the army and the pharmacists like Hardik Desai who rallied local volunteers to vaccinate 3,000 people in his village hall in Ticehurst in Sussex, while keeping his pharmacy open and of course I thank all of you who have come forward to be vaccinated,” prime minister Johnson, explained. “This is an unprecedented national achievement but it’s no moment to relax, and in fact, it’s the moment to accelerate because the threat from this virus remains very real.”
Prime minister Johnson continued: “ Yes, it’s true, we have vaccinated more than 90 percent of those aged over 70 but don’t forget that 60 percent of hospital patients with COVID are under 70. And although the vaccination programme is going well, we still don’t have enough data about the exact effectiveness of the vaccines in reducing the spread of infection. We have some interesting straws in the wind. We have grounds for confidence. But the vaccinations have only been running for a matter of weeks and while we are learning the whole time; we don’t today have all the hard facts that we need.”
The level of infection remains very high, with more people still in hospital today than at the peak last April and admissions running at 1,600 a day, the prime minister noted.
“So we have to keep our foot to the floor. And I can tell you today that the next million letters are landing on people’s mats right now, offering appointments to the over-65s and we are also contacting all those aged between 16 and 64 with underlying health conditions, as well as adult carers. And if we can keep this pace up, if we can keep supply steady – and I hope and believe we can – then we hope to offer vaccination to everyone in the first nine priority groups – including everyone over 50 – by the end of April.”
Prime minister Johnson advised that “we will be giving second doses to millions of the most vulnerable within twelve weeks of the first. So this moment is a huge step forward but it’s only a first step. And while it shows what the country can do, we must be both optimistic but also patient.”
Looking forward to next week the prime minister is expected to set out a roadmap to normality “even though some things are very uncertain” … “we want this lockdown to be the last. And we want progress to be cautious but also irreversible,” said prime minister Johnson.
