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* PM Johnson set to announce tougher restrictions
* New measures likely to come into force from midnight - BBC
* UK first to roll out AstraZeneca vaccine
* 82-year-old dialysis patient is first to get shot
* UK hails British scientific 'triumph'
* Concerns grow over South African variant
(Adds health chiefs on alert level, health service)
By William Schomberg, Alistair Smout and Guy Faulconbridge
LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson was poised to introduce tougher coronavirus
restrictions in England at midnight on Monday, in a new national
lockdown to try to reduce a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Johnson was due to deliver a televised address to the nation
at 2000 GMT.
Johnson's government earlier on Monday touted a scientific
"triumph" as Britain became the first country in the world to
start vaccinating its population with Oxford University and
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot.
But as the country grapples with the world's sixth highest
death toll and cases repeatedly reaching highs, Britain's four
chief medical officers and the medical director of England's
health service said the alert level should move to its highest.
New measures aimed at reducing pressure on the health
service would include school closures for most pupils in England
and requiring people to work from home unless they are unable to
do their jobs remotely, in what would be similar to the lockdown
introduced early on in the pandemic in March.
On a happier note, dialysis patient Brian Pinker on Monday
received the first Oxford/AstraZeneca shot outside of a trial.
"I am so pleased to be getting the COVID vaccine today and
really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford," said
the 82-year-old retired maintenance manager, just a few hundred
metres from where the vaccine was developed.
But even with the vaccines being rolled out, the number of
COVID-19 cases and deaths are rising.
More than 75,000 people in the United Kingdom have died from
COVID-19 within 28 days of a positive test. A record 58,784 new
cases of the coronavirus were reported on Monday.
"We are not confident that the NHS (National Health Service)
can handle a further sustained rise in cases and without further
action there is a material risk of the NHS in several areas
being overwhelmed over the next 21 days," the chief medical
officers of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and
the medical director of NHS England said in a statement.
Moving ahead of Johnson, Scottish First Minister Nicola
Sturgeon earlier on Monday imposed the most stringent lockdown
for Scotland since last spring.
"It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about
the situation that we face now than I have been at any time
since March," she said.
VACCINE ROLL-OUT
Last month, Britain became the first country to roll out the
vaccine developed by Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech
, and it is prioritising getting a first dose of
vaccines to as many people as possible over giving second doses.
Some experts say they are worried about such an approach.
Two new variants of the coronavirus are complicating the
COVID-19 response.
UK scientists have expressed concern that the vaccines being
rolled out may not be able to protect against a new variant of
the coronavirus that emerged in South Africa and has spread
internationally.
Britain has administered more than a million COVID-19
vaccines - more than the rest of Europe put together, Health
Secretary Matt Hancock said.
Johnson's government has secured 100 million doses of the
Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine which can be stored at fridge
temperatures between two to eight degrees, making it easier to
distribute than the Pfizer shot.
Six hospitals in England are administering the first of
around 530,000 doses Britain has ready. The programme will be
expanded to hundreds of other sites in coming days, and the
government hopes it will deliver tens of millions of doses
within months.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it
had administered 4.2 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines as
of Saturday morning and distributed 13.07 million doses.
More than a tenth of Israel's population have had a vaccine
and it is now administering more than 150,000 doses a day.
Germany and Denmark are looking into the possibility of
delaying administering a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to
make scarce supplies go further, after a similar move by
Britain.
Britain became the first Western country to approve and roll
out a COVID-19 vaccine, although it is behind Russia and China
which have been inoculating their citizens for months.
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Writing by William
James, Guy Faulconbridge and Alistair Smout; Editing by Kate
Holton, Nick Macfie, Mike Collett-White and Gareth Jones)
