A “significant milestone” has been conquered in the quest to redeem normality, as said by Boris Johnson, with 15 million people in the UK having recieved their first vaccine.

 

Letters are being sent nationally to all those aged over 65 and the clinically vulnerable to invite them to receive the first dose of their COVID 19 vaccine. This has come a day after at least one dose of the vaccine has been given to 15 million people in the UK meaning that the first four priority groups (those aged 70 and clinically extremely vulnerable) have all been invited to receive the first dose of the vaccine. A minute number of just over 537,000 people have received the second and final dose resulting in them having the maximum protection from the virus.

 

By the end of April, the government is aiming to vaccinate 17 million people in groups five to nine which will be done alongside dispensing second doses to many in groups one to four. Boris Johnson stated that there was still “a long way to go” ,in his video message on Sunday, and that there would “undoubtedly be bumps in the road.”

 

As pressure grows with some Conservative MPs demanding that sectors such as hospitality and tourism reopen, the priminister is expected to outline how the country will exit the current lockdown on the 22nd of February.

 

More than 60 Tory backbenchers are said to have backed a COVID Research Group letter calling on Boris Johnson to commit to a firm timetable, over the weekend, beginning with the reopening of schools on the 8th March and ending with the lifting of all legal restrictions by the end of April. The PM appeared very cautious making it clear that the data would need to be studied “very, very hard” for evidence that the vaccines are driving down the number of daily cases and deaths before easing restrictions.

 

With so many factors at play, only time can tell when we really will be reintroduced to normality.