As progress continues with the UK government's vaccine rollout program, Brits in their 30sare just days away from receiving their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine—weeks ahead of schedule.
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Much faster than expected
With the UK government coming closer to finalising a deal to purchase over 10 million more doses of Pfizer vaccines, 35-39 years old were initially going to be invited to receive their first jab sometime in mid May, but things have developed much faster than expected. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson commented:
Our vaccination programme continues to make phenomenal progress - with over 45.5 million vaccines administered so far. As we've already said, we are preparing for a booster programme to take place later this year and we continue to plan for all scenarios.
And added:
We hit our target to offer a vaccine to everyone in phase one of the vaccination programme and we are on track to offer a jab to all adults by the end of July.
Ripple effect on other age groups
As a result, this may bring forward the rest of the timetable initially mapped out for the UK. In particular, this would mean that the 18-29 age group will likely be receiving their first dose well before its expected rollout in July.
As of today, around 34 million people have received at least one dose of the jab meaning that more than half of the UK's total population is at least half shielded from the virus. Deputy chief executive of NHS Providers Saffron Cordery highlighted the incredible achievement in such little time:
It is an astonishing achievement that half of the UK population has now had at least one Covid-19 jab. In under five months, frontline NHS staff in trusts and primary care and volunteers have done an incredible job giving out over 33 million first jabs and more than 11 million second doses.
