More than three-quarters of adults in the UK have now received both doses of a Covid jab in a huge new vaccine milestone for the UK.
A total of 86,780,455 doses have been administered in the UK, with 47,091,889 people receiving a first dose (89%) and 39,688,566 people receiving both doses (75%), according to the Department of Health.
The figures were announced as Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said preparations are being made to offer Covid booster jabs from next month.
He said: “Three in four adults across the UK have now had both doses of the vaccine, which is incredible and a testament to the fantastic work of the NHS, volunteers and everyone involved in the rollout.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson aded: "Our incredible vaccine rollout has now provided vital protection against the virus to three-quarters of all UK adults. This is a huge national achievement, which we should all be proud of.
"It's so important that those who haven't been vaccinated come forward as soon as possible to book their jab - to protect themselves, protect their loved ones and allow us all to enjoy our freedoms safely."
Earlier, Mr Javid said preparations are being made to offer Covid booster jabs from next month.
He said: “When it comes to booster jabs we are waiting for the final advice from JCVI, that’s our group of independent clinical advisers, and when we get that advice we will be able to start the booster programme, but I anticipate it will begin in early September, so I’m already making plans for that.
“It’s really important that when we start that programme, the sort of first cohorts, the ones that got the jabs early on when we started our programme – the first in the world back in December last year – that those cohorts come first and so we will be prioritising it.
“Also in terms of vaccination, it’s important to say that they’re working.
“This wall of defence that the vaccines have created are working. It’s massively reduced hospitalisations, deaths from Covid are mercifully low and that’s because of our vaccination programme.”
He said the plan is for the flu jab to be offered, especially to over 50s, at the same time as their Covid booster jab.
But a leading vaccination expert has said an autumn Covid-19 vaccine booster programme may not be needed as “there isn’t any reason at this moment to panic”.
So far the data suggests that the vaccines are holding out against the virus which causes Covid-19 and protecting the double-jabbed from severe disease and death, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard said.
Sir Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told the All Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus: “The decision to boost or not should be scientifically driven.
“That is not really a question of whether we see some transmission in the community – actually having cases and living with Covid is something which is the future.
“The time which we would need to boost is if we saw evidence that there was an increase in hospitalisation or people dying amongst those who are vaccinated.
“That is not something that we’re seeing at the moment.
“But we have to also have an understanding scientifically about how the vaccines work and they are providing very high levels of protection against that severe end of the spectrum, but also, even as the levels of immunity start to drop that we can measure in the blood, our immune system still remembers that we were vaccinated and we’ll be remembering decades from now that we have those two doses of vaccine.
“So there isn’t any reason at this moment to panic.”
