May 7 (Reuters) - The new coronavirus will no longer be
circulating in Britain by August, the government's departing
vaccine taskforce chief Clive Dix told the Daily Telegraph on
Friday.
"Sometime in August, we will have no circulating virus in
the UK", Dix said, adding that he believed the vaccine booster
programme could be pushed back to early 2022.
The government is looking at which COVID-19 vaccines would
offer the best booster shot for vulnerable people later this
year.
Dix told the Telegraph https://bit.ly/2RAIAhM that he
expects everybody in the UK to have been vaccinated at least
once by the end of July, by which time "we'll have probably
protected the population from all the variants that are known."
The UK has administered over 51 million vaccines and has
been the second quickest country to give a first dose to at
least half its adult population.
British officials said people under 40 should be offered an
alternative to Oxford/AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine
where possible due to a small risk of blood clots.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation
(JCVI)said the advice reflected low levels of coronavirus
infection in Britain and the availability of other vaccines made
by Pfizer and Moderna.
Dix, who was appointed as interim leader of the task force
in December, stepped down from his role last week.
(Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru; editing by Grant
McCool)
Astrazeneca (AZN)