UK acquires 60 million coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer for ‘booster’ doses

The Government of UK announced on Wednesday the acquisition of 60 million additional doses of the vaccine against coronavirus from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. It will inoculate “booster dose” Next fall to the population already immunized.

The Minister of Health, Matt Hancock, advanced in a press conference that these injections will be used “Together with others” for an immunization program that allows “protect the progress that has been made so far”.

“There can be no room for complacency“Said Hancock, who stressed that the additional doses will be necessary to”keep the virus under control”.

The minister said that the new vaccines acquired “have not yet been manufactured”And avoided specifying whether they will be injections of the same type as those that have been administered so far or whether they will be modified to offer greater protection against possible new dangerous variants of the coronavirus.

The Government’s deputy medical adviser, Jonathan Van-Tam, said for his part that a study will begin in June to determine whether injecting a third dose of a different vaccine to already immunized people offers protection “more espacious”.

Van-Tam stressed that the moment in which this third injection will be offered, as well as to which sectors of the population it will be administered, has yet to be determined.

George Dyer, 90, reacts when he receives a dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Croydon University Hospital in South London on December 8, 2020.

Shipping oxygen to India

The Health Minister announced that the United Kingdom will send three oxygen generating units to India, capable of producing 500 liters of this element per minute, to help face the serious wave of the pandemic that is suffering the country.

Last week, the British Government already sent 200 respirators and 495 oxygen concentrators from “surplus stocks”Retained by the United Kingdom.

Asked about the possibility of donating doses of coronavirus vaccines to India, Hancock stated that the country does not have “any doses left over right now.”

He assured, however, that the UK it has helped other countries fight the pandemic “by providing the Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine at cost price.”

“We are working with the Serum Institute of India, and they are producing more vaccines than any other organization. That means they can offer the vaccine in India at cost price. Hancock stressed.