Cllr Gareth Watson welcomes acceleration of vaccine rollout in South Ribble
- Cllr Watson has welcomed the latest figures showing 30.1 per cent of people in South Ribble have now received a vaccine
- In total, more than 19.3 million doses have been administered to over 18.6 million people across the United Kingdom – equivalent to 1 in 3 adults.
- The vaccine programme is averaging more than 2.5 million doses a week, with new targets to offer the vaccine to everyone in the top nine priority groups by 15 April, and the rest of the adult population by the end of July
Gareth has welcomed the Government’s Vaccines Delivery Plan – the biggest vaccination programme in British history – that sets ambitious targets as the government continues to ramp up its vaccine rollout.
Already in South Ribble 30.1 per cent of the population have received a vaccine – and with the programme averaging more than 2.5 million doses a week, the Prime Minister is aiming to have offered every adult a vaccine by the end of July.
The United Kingdom is leading the way with its vaccination programme. So far, more than 18.6 million people have received a vaccine – equivalent to 1 in 3 adults. This is the third highest per capita, behind only the UAE and Israel. In addition, only two countries have administered more doses than the United Kingdom – China and the USA.
Everyone in the top four priority groups has now been offered a vaccine, as invites are now going out those in priority groups 5 to 9. The latest figures now show that two thirds of those aged 65 to 69 have now been vaccinated.
Gareth has also welcomed the Prime Minister’s roadmap to take cautious and irreversible steps out of lockdown, which will be guided by the data and not dates.
Commenting, Gareth said:
“The NHS vaccination programme, the biggest in our country’s history, has been a fantastic success story and showcases the very best of collaboration across the entire United Kingdom. I would like to thank everyone involved in this enormous effort, without whom, this would not be possible.
“It’s great to see that so many people in my constituency have received the vaccine as we lead the world in our fight back against coronavirus.
“We are defeating this virus by the hundreds of thousands of jabs going into people’s arms every day, giving us hope as we look to a route back to normality”.
