COVID-19 vaccinations for young children now expected to start later than originally planned
The UK will be seeing the first doses of a vaccine against the coronavirus which originated in Wuhan, China, for young children tomorrow (March 26), according to the government.
As a result of this vaccine, the UK will be the first country in the world to start offering mass vaccinations against the deadly virus, meaning those aged one to 16 will be able to potentially be protected.
There are no confirmed cases of the Coronavirus at the moment, but the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said it was “safe to assume that we have probably infected some number” of people.
Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, Hancock said: “We should not take this virus, which has the potential to cause widespread illness, to be inevitable and not prepared when we have the knowledge that we do.”
The UK, alongside China, has now confirmed that they are both to begin mass testing for the virus, as part of the global response to fight it.
There has been a global scramble to find a vaccine for the deadly virus, which has spread around the world and killed over 90,000 people, most of them in mainland China.
The US, Russia and South Korea have all announced that their populations will have the right to a “personal, non-governmental” vaccine against the virus.
The US, which has also suffered the biggest death toll from the virus, is understood to have begun mass testing of a vaccine, which should go on sale soon.
Speaking at a briefing on the virus and the government’s response, the US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said: “We’ve been looking at every option and we have every opportunity to respond in whatever way we need to respond but this is a moment where we will act to ensure we are able to save lives.�
