The UK has secured 60m additional doses of Pzifer/BionTech’s coronavirus vaccine, Matt Hancock has confirmed.
The health secretary said the shots would be used as part of the UK’s “booster” programme during the winter, when cases are expected to rise again.
Elsewhere, India’s devastating second wave of Covid-19 could be weeks away, scientists warned, as the country passed a total of 200,000 deaths from the virus.
The number of daily new infections could surge by around a third to 440,000 by next week, before peaking between 14 and 18 May, scientists from the Indian Institutes of Technology said, as the capital, Delhi, was overwhelmed by the number of dead bodies.
Meanwhile, the head of vaccine developers BioNTech claimed Europe would reach herd immunity by August at the latest, as he warned a third vaccine dose would be necessary within a year of receiving the second.
Studies show the efficacy of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine declines from 95 per cent to about 91 per cent after six months, he said.
Earlier, the UK government revealed Britain’s “vaccine passport” for international travel will be based on the NHS smartphone app.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, told Sky News the government was working on an app using the NHS platform and said he was seeking international recognition of the system.
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