Covid vaccines will mean life can start returning to normal by April, says Vallance
THE Covid vaccine roll out will mean life can start to return to normal by April, says Sir Patrick Vallance.
The Chief Scientific Advisor praised so-called “V Day” as a “fantastic day”, after a Briton was the first in the world to receive an approved jab.
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But he said it was important to recognise that mass vaccination would take “quite a long time”, and would “not happen overnight”.
He urged everyone to keep abiding by Covid-19 restrictions to keep the virus at low levels while the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine reached the most vulnerable people.
Speaking on Sky News, Sir Patrick said: “We see how easily and quickly this virus spreads. We celebrate, for sure, this fantastic day of vaccination, and keep cautious about how to keep the virus at bay.”
Sir Patrick, who has played a prominent role in directing the scientific response to the pandemic in the UK, was asked when he thought life would return to “normal”.
He said: “I would expect spring time, April, for some normality. We are on that path now.
“I think the tier restrictions need to keep the virus down. Once we have the vulnerable vaccinated, you can see if you can change things.”
Coronavirus vaccine taskforce chairwoman Kate Bingham said she expected people would be able to go on holiday next summer.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My gut feel is that we will all be going on summer holidays.
“It is likely that those people most at risk will be vaccinated through to April, and then the JCVI and the Department for Health will then consider how to broaden out the vaccinations to other adults.
“I think by the summer we should be in a much better place to get on planes.
“I don’t think we’re going to get away from this virus ever – so we’re going to have to maintain sensible hygiene and washing hands, and so on.
“I would like this vaccine to be as routine as an annual flu jab and that we manage it rather than get bowed down by it.”
The NHS’s largest mass vaccination programme in history begun today, marking the “beginning of the end”, Sir Patrick said.
Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother from Coventry, was became the first person in the world to receive the jab at 6.31am on Tuesday.
She said: “I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19, it’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year.
“I can’t thank May and the NHS staff enough who have looked after me tremendously, and my advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it – if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too.”
Sir Patrick said it was “fantastic” to hear Margaret speaking so positively about her experience.
Margaret, who retired as a jewellery shop assistant just four years ago, told viewers: “If I can do it, you can.”
The Health Secretary Matt Hancock, reacting to the footage of Mrs Keenan getting her jab, told Sky News: “I’m feeling quite emotional, actually, watching those pictures.
“It has been such a tough year for so many people and finally we have our way through it – our light at the end of the tunnel as so many people are saying.
“And just watching Margaret there – it seems so simple having a jab in your arm, but that will protect Margaret and it will protect the people around her.
“And if we manage to do that in what is going to be one of the biggest programmes in NHS history, if we manage to do that for everybody who is vulnerable to this disease, then we can move on.”
Mr Hancock said the start of the roll out of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine meant there was “finally” a “way through” the coronavirus crisis.
Jabs will be administered at dozens of hospital hubs across the country from today – dubbed “V-Day” by Mr Hancock.
He said this morning: “It’s great news that we are the first country in the world to have this clinically authorised and being able to roll out this programme.
“And when enough people who are vulnerable to Covid-19 have been vaccinated then, of course, we can lift the restrictions … we think that will be in the spring.
“It’s very important for everyone watching that whilst we vaccinate people – and we will do that at the pace at which the manufacturers can produce the vaccine – whilst we vaccinate people and whilst we get the second dose in, we’ve got to hold our nerve, we’ve got to stick together and we’ve got to follow the rules.
“It is no good everybody relaxing now – we’ve got to hold firm until the vaccination programme has reached enough vulnerable people so that we don’t have people dying from coronavirus in the number that we do today.”
'Today we take a decisive step in our country’s fightback against this deadly virus'
By Sir Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England
Coronavirus has undoubtedly made 2020 an incredibly challenging year for our country, and of course dedicated NHS staff responding to the worst health emergency in the 72 year history of our health service.
Nurses, doctors, paramedics, therapists, and countless others have worked tirelessly to care for nearly 200,000 seriously ill patients with Covid-19, while keeping essential services on the go for major conditions like cancer and strokes.
True to the traditions of our NHS and the spirit of our country, we pull together in darker times.
So throughout the weekend, nurses, pharmacists, doctors and many others have been working flat out at dozens of hospitals across the nation to be ready to vaccinate today.
People aged 80 and over, care home workers and residents together with at-risk staff will be first in line, with many more set to benefit in the coming months.
Many of you will be waking up this morning to news that the first patient in the world has received this vaccine since it was approved: an extraordinary achievement for science and for my colleagues working in the health service.
While the end may be in sight, we must not forget that our hospitals are still caring for many thousands of Covid patients, and we cannot let infections get out of hand. So it is vital that everyone continues to act sensibly, until further vaccine supplies become available between now and next spring.
Then as more vaccine comes available we will be able to switch on large vaccination centres across the country, alongside GP surgeries and local pharmacists offering local clinics.
The NHS will contact you when it is time to get your jab.
Protecting everyone against this terrible disease will take time, but there is now cause for hope, and there’s no doubt that NHS staff will once again rise to the challenge.
It has been an exhausting, draining year for everyone.
But today we take a decisive step in our country’s fightback against this deadly virus.
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The NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme will see patients aged 80 and above who are already attending hospital as an outpatient, and those who are being discharged home after a hospital stay, among the first to receive the jab.
Care home providers are also being asked by the Department of Health and Social Care to begin booking staff in to vaccination clinics.
GPs are also expected to be able to begin vaccinating care home residents.
Any appointments not used for these groups will be used for healthcare workers who are at highest risk of serious illness from Covid-19.