A record 400,000 Britons got their coronavirus vaccinations on Thursday as the NHS drive continues to gather steam.
The early figures – published ahead of the official update from the Department of Health later today – suggest thousands of jabs are being administered every hour, and mark the third day in a row the scheme has got faster.
The Government is aiming to get jabs into the arms of 15million in the most at risk groups by mid-February. This means they will need to inoculate about 350,000 a day, a target that was exceeded yesterday.
Overall, more than 5.6million Britons have been vaccinated against the virus.
The statistics will be updated later today to include all jabs done, but they area promising sign the rollout is being ramped up.
It comes as No10 today slapped down Tory calls for a ‘road map’ out of the national shutdown despite the R number dropping below the critical level of one while separate figures show cases have halved in a fortnight.
Downing Street defied mounting anger from MPs and more evidence the outbreak has peaked, warning the NHS is still under huge pressure and the curbs will only be lifted when it is ‘safe.
Boris Johnson has pointedly refused to rule out the draconian restrictions lasting into the summer, while ministers seem focused on ramping up border controls and boosting bailouts.
But the Prime Minister is coming under massive pressure to lay out an exit timetable, with the 70-strong Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs urging the government to start lifting the lockdown no later than March 8 – when vaccines given to the most vulnerable groups should have taken effect.
It also comes as the vaccination strategy was mired in confusion today amid claims that supplies to areas that have been quickest to inoculate the most vulnerable will be diverted to slower areas to allow them to catch up.
Britain’s Covid vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi today denied the reports, but this afternoon No10 refused to deny that supplies could be redistributed.
Early figures from NHS England published today show 359,897 people got either their first or second dose of the vaccine on January 21.
In Wales almost 22,000 got their jab on the same day, while Scotland said it had inoculated 23,800.
No early figures were provided for Northern Ireland, but these will be revealed when the count is updated later today.
NHS England said overall it had completed 5,100,475 vaccinations by January 21, and of these 4,661,293 were for the first dose and 439,182 were for the second.
Public Health Wales said it had done 212,317 first doses since the scheme began, and 415 second doses.
And Public Health Scotland said 358,454 people had got their first dose by 8am on January 22, and 4,689 had got their second.
In a dramatic sign that Britain’s outbreak could be flattening out, SAGE said the R rate was between 0.8 and 1. That is down sharply from last week, when it was between 1.2 and 1.3. The number represents how many people an infected individual passes the disease on to, and anything below one means the outbreak is shrinking.
Separate data show cases have halved in a fortnight, although a million people were infected, and deaths in London are falling. Mr Johnson is leading a press conference this evening, and could reveal that the number of people given vaccines have topped five million, with the rollout speeding up.
But there is little evidence the brutal squeeze will be loosened any time soon, despite grim figures showing business activity has plunged even more than expected during the lockdown this month, leaving the UK looking down the barrel of a double dip recession.
The government borrowed more than £34billion in December – the third highest monthly total ever – as it scrambles to keep millions of jobs and stricken firms afloat while tax revenues dwindle.
Instead Cabinet ministers are embroiled in an unseemly squabble over whether to pump up financial support further and toughen rules at UK borders.
A leaked plan from Matt Hancock’s Department of Health would see everyone who tests positive for coronavirus given £500 in cash to self-isolate.
The idea, which could cost half a billion pounds a week, is meant to bolster low levels of compliance – but officials at Rishi Sunak’s Treasury branded it ‘bonkers’, while No10 effectively disowned the proposal, saying the PM had not seen it.
Meanwhile, the powerful Covid O Cabinet committee is due to made a decision on introducing ‘quarantine hotels’ next week – with all arrivals potentially forced to isolate for 10 days at airports in a bid to prevent more Covid ‘super-strains’ being imported.