As the UK rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine gets underway, many will be waiting impatiently for their chance to get the jab in the hope of seeing life return to normal again in 2021, after a year to forget.
The British government has ordered an initial 40m doses of the vaccine – enough to administer the two-part treatment to 20m people – the first batch consisting of 800,000 doses, enabling the vaccination of 400,000 people across the country.
An estimated 137,000 people have already received an injection in the 10 days since 91-year-old Margaret Keenan of Coventry became the first in the world to do so.
The over-80s and frontline health workers in the NHS and care homes are at the head of the queue, while the rest of us have little choice but to sit tight and wait our turn.
But if you’re feeling antsy, Omni’s Vaccine Queue Calculator is available to give you an approximate estimate of how long it will be before your number comes up.
The programme asks you to input your age and answer a few basic questions about your health and working conditions in return for a rough idea of your position in line.
It is based on the UK government’s priority list but is otherwise independent and not affiliated with the NHS or the national vaccine rollout programme.
Whatever answer you recieve, patience is likely to remain the watchword.
Sir Patrick Vallance, England’s chief scientific officer, told Sky News on “V-Day” last week: “It’s going to take quite a long time to make sure everybody in the at-risk groups and all of the groups that are difficult to reach get vaccinated as appropriate.”
Sir Patrick also said normality is unlikely to return before next spring and warned that it could still be advisable to wear face masks in public until next winter.
Covid-19 is clearly not going away just yet, with the UK suffering more than 1.95m cases of the respiratory disease so far and over 66,000 deaths.
A further flare-up appears to be underway in the runup to Christmas, forcing Boris Johnson’s government to rethink its temporary relaxation of social distancing rules over the festive period.
