Public Health England's Dr Susan Hopkins said that 70% of adults in the UK should be able to get their second Covid-19 vaccination by July 19
Asked what it would take for coronavirus restrictions to be eased, she told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show: “What I would like to see is that everyone over the age of 40 has had the opportunity to get double-vaccinated.
“And as many people over the age of 30 have the opportunity to get two doses of vaccination as well.
“We know that two doses of vaccination really protects against hospital admission, about 94% overall and 92% for AstraZeneca and 96% for Pfizer.
“Overall as many people getting two doses of vaccination would be really good.”
She added: “We should be able to hit the 70% figure having two doses before July 19.”
The UK is “seeing the impact of vaccination”, the strategic response director for Covid-19 at Public Health England (PHE) has said.
Dr Susan Hopkins said: “We are definitely seeing some signals in some areas of cases slowing down, Bolton for example has definitely reversed, Blackburn and Darwen has stabilised.
“But there are other parts of the country, particularly in some parts of the north-east, some parts of London that are still rising quite fast.
“So I think this is not all doing the same thing all over the country, and we’re seeing rises and falls as people go out and get tested and I think we are seeing the impact of vaccination and that is good news.
“The extra time to vaccinate more people, get two doses of vaccination in as many people as possible will hopefully mean that what we’re seeing with this wave won’t look the same as the previous waves that we’ve seen in this country.”
