NHS data has revealed just how many people have already been vaccinated against coronavirus.
Nothing has dominated the headlines and the national consciousness quite like coronavirus this year, so it’s small wonder we’re also scanning the news for updates on the vaccine. We’ve already checked out where we are in the queue for the vaccine with this online calculator, and with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine now in circulation (and the Moderna vaccine expected in the spring), we’re now wondering just how many people have been vaccinated against the virus.
From December 8, when Margaret Keenan received the first Pfizer vaccination, to yesterday (February 28), 20,089,551 people in the UK received an NHS vaccination. That’s over one in three UK adults now vaccinated against the virus that ripped across the globe in 2020, with the majority of the jabs administered to people in England. Meanwhile, 796,132 people have now had both doses of the vaccine.
As the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines, the UK has had a bit of a head start when it comes to protecting the population. Of course, there’s still a Herculean effort required to get the whole nation vaccinated – not least because both vaccines require two doses, administered up to twelve weeks apart – but it’s still an excellent start to what will become the largest vaccination effort in UK history. With over 40 million doses of the Pfizer jab and 100 million of the Oxford vaccine on order, there are enough doses to vaccinate the whole UK population.
The NHS will be delivering weekly data reports on the vaccine uptake, so this number is only going to go up in the next few weeks and months. To this end, UK vaccines minister Nadim Zahawi has vowed a surge in vaccinations in the coming weeks, in order to meet an ambitious government target of 13 million vulnerable people vaccinated by mid-February. You can track the weekly vaccine reports from NHS England here, if you’re interested – and don’t forget to ensure your details are registered with your GP to make sure they can contact you about your own vaccination.