COVID19 Vaccine
UK Health secretary tells NHS to prepare for COVID-19 vaccine rollout from December
Moscow/Sputnik: The UK's National Health Service (NHS) has been asked to prepare for the rollout of vaccines against COVID-19 from December, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday, adding that the country's armed forces will also aid in the vaccination program.
"I've asked the NHS, supported by the armed services in this, but with the NHS very much leading this effort for deploying this vaccine ... to be ready from the start of December," Hancock said during an appearance on the Sky News broadcaster.
Hancock stated that the government will not begin deployment until there is full confidence in the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
The health secretary spoke after US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German firm BioNTech on Monday published the interim results of clinical trials conducted on their vaccine against COVID-19.
The two firms said that the vaccine has been 90 percent effective in preventing people from contracting the disease within 28 days of inoculation.
The UK government has already placed an order for 40 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech's candidate vaccine, enough to inoculate 20 million people.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters on Monday that as many as 10 million doses could arrive by the end of the year pending approval.
More than 1.2 million cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the United Kingdom since the start of the pandemic, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. Public health officials registered 21,350 new positive tests on Monday.
The country's death toll currently stands at 49,238 after 194 new fatalities were registered on Monday, according to data published by the department.
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