© Reuters/ Carl RecineA nurse puts up a sign outside the Millennium Point Vaccination Centre in Birmingham, Britain, January 11, 2021.
The next few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic will be the worst as the new highly infectious variants of the virus rampage across the country, the British government's chief medical adviser said on Monday.
"The next few weeks are going to be the worst weeks of this pandemic in terms of numbers into the NHS (National Health Service)," Chris Whitty told BBC TV. "What we need to do before the vaccines have had their effect, because it will take several weeks before that happens, we need to really double down."
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UK govt minister urges against socializing
Around 15 million people in Britain will have been offered Covid-19 vaccines by the middle of February, minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday, urging citizens to behave as if they already have the virus to stop the spread.
Zahawi, who is responsible for the vaccination programme, said vaccinations in the country "are really beginning to ramp up", with 200,000 jabs a day currently being offered. "In the top four categories in the UK, there are 15 million people. In England [alone], it's about 12 million people, so we would have offered a vaccination to all those people [by mid-February] to make sure we can protect them," Zahawi told Sky News.
The government still hopes a return to some degree of normality by spring is possible, but to reach the vaccination target, it needs to deliver some two million inoculations a week. Zahawi acknowledged that "this is an enormous rollout of the largest vaccination programme in the history of this country."
Seven mass vaccination centres will be opened in England on Monday, with every adult being able to receive a vaccine within a 10-mile radius, according to the minister.
Zahawi is also concerned about the spread of coronavirus in supermarkets, with many people breaching the rules by not wearing masks.
"This virus loves social interaction, and the worst thing we can do is to socialise," he said, after reports claimed ministers were considering tougher lockdown rules.
"We don't want to go any tougher, because this is [already] a pretty tough lockdown. What we need is people to behave as if they have got the virus."
Coronavirus cases surpassed 90 million worldwide on Monday, a Reuters tally shows, and the UK, which crossed the line with three million cases last Friday, remains the worst-affected European country.
Mask up outdoors too, says Welsh health minister
Vaughan Gething told a press conference on Monday afternoon that people in Wales should endeavour to stay at home as much as possible and to remember that, "If we do have to go out, to wear a face mask when we're in public places."
The new guidance goes further than the advice given by the UK government, which makes no such suggestions for face coverings outdoors.
"Vaccination is life-saving and, in this pandemic, it could be life-changing for all of us. This is a race against the virus to save as many lives as possible," Gething added.
"As we speed up the rollout of vaccines across Wales, it's more important than ever that we follow the rules to keep all of us safe."
Parts of Wales have been among the most heavily impacted by the pandemic, although its national infection rate now sits considerably below that of England.
The health authorities say there have been 468.2 infections registered per 100,000 people in the past seven days in Wales. In England, the figure is 650.9 cases.
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