Matt Hancock claims UK vaccine rollout has saved 13,200 lives
The UK’s vaccine rollout has saved an estimated 13,200 lives and stopped 39,000 hospitalisations, according to Matt Hancock.
Hancock said at today’s press conference that three-in-four adults have Covid antibodies, including 90 per cent of over 50s, which gives people a level of immunity against the virus.
The figures come as Hancock was yesterday branded a serial liar and partly at fault for costing tens of thousands of lives during the Covid pandemic by former Number 10 aide Dominic Cummings.
The health secretary denies the allegations.
“Today’s data from Public Health England show why [getting the vaccine] is important,” he said.
“We have given 4.1m vaccines over the past week – which is the highest figure since March.”
However, the health secretary also warned the more transmissible Indian variant was beginning to spread quickly around the country.
Public Health England (PHE) estimates that between 50 per cent and 75 per cent of new Covid cases in the country are now the Indian variant.
There have been around 7,000 new cases of the Indian variant in the past week.
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This has led to increasing coronavirus cases in the UK for the first time in months, with 3,452 cases recorded today – a 20 per cent weekly increase.
Hospitalisations have also increased by 20 per cent over the past week.
Hancock said the government believes the vaccine rollout has “broken the link” between new cases and hospitalisations and deaths.
He said it “appears” two Covid jabs is effective against the Indian variant.
“We monitor these new variants really really carefully to check the effectiveness of the vaccines against them,” he said.
UK Health Security Agency chief Dr Jenny Harries said “we are seeing very very strong vaccine effectiveness after the second dose” in relation to the Indian variant.
Hancock also announced that the UK, together with Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), was launching a study into whether different vaccines can be mixed and still be effective.