Covid vaccines UK: Every over-50 in Britain is offered jab

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The NHS website for booking Covid vaccination appointments crashed this morning, just moments after the roll-out in England was opened up to over-45s.

Health chiefs today opened up the national booking system for the next phase of the inoculation drive, after No10 hit its April 15 goal of offering everyone in the top nine priority groups their first dose three days ahead of schedule.  

But the website ran into ‘technical difficulties’ after over-45s flocked online to book an appointment. 

Users trying to get a jab were told: ‘The NHS site is currently experiencing technical difficulties. We are working to resolve these issues. Thank you for your patience.’

Others reported being placed in a queue with a holding screen which read: ‘You are in a queue. Lots of people [are] trying to book an appointment.’

Shortly after the site crashed, No10’s vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi tweeted that the problem was ‘fixed’. 

Moderna’s vaccine is also being dished out in England from today. But only 20 sites will get supplies of the US company’s jab this week, as supply trickles in at around 150,000 a week.

Ministers have bought 17million doses of Moderna’s vaccine, which is the third to be added to the NHS’ ‘armoury’, alongside jabs from Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

Moderna’s jab — as well as leftover supplies of AstraZeneca and Pfizer that haven’t been reserved for second doses — will be used to move on to the next phase of the roll-out. 

Boris Johnson hailed the ‘hugely significant milestone’ in the race to inoculate the country, as he said the Government would ‘move forward’ on its next goal of inviting every adult for a vaccine by the end of July. 

The Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation (JCVI), No10’s advisory group, will shortly set out its final advice for the next chapter of the programme.

But NHS officials insist the inoculation drive will focus on second doses this month, in the face of AstraZeneca supply issues after a delivery of five million doses from India was delayed.

Pfizer’s jab has also been reserved for second doses, further constraining jab availability for first shots. 

England today expanded its drive to over-45s, as experts called on officials to mop up the one in 20 in higher priority groups that still have not got the jab.

Wales and Northern Ireland have already started giving out doses to over-45s — but Scotland has yet to officially move on to under-50s. 

Professor Jeremy Brown, who sits on the JCVI, said it was ‘vitally important’ that officials mopped up ‘the last few per cent’ to avoid them getting infected and ending up ill in hospital.

‘The problem here is that five to 10 per cent have not been vaccinated,’ the University College London expert told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

‘When the virus re-circulates through the community they could get infected and end up in hospital.

‘So it is vitally important that we get that last few per cent.’

More than 32million Britons have already received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine as the drive steams ahead.

Covid cases, deaths and hospitalisations have also been on the decline amid lockdown and a successful roll-out.

Further lockdown restrictions were also eased yesterday to allow people in England to visit a pub or restaurant outdoors, or go into a shop or gym again.

But the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, warned that Britons should not assume the vaccinations had put the country on a ‘one-way, inexorable, inevitable track to it all being fantastic’.

‘I know I might sound a bit like a prophet of doom the day after we’ve started enabling people to go back to the pub garden, but the reality is there are… really good reasons why we need to be cautious here,’ he told Sky News.

‘We need to be really careful about assuming we’re on a one-way track to it all being fantastic and we can go back to normal, because actually we’ll need a new normal.’

Variants of the virus – including the South African and Brazilian mutant strains – have been shown to be able to partially evade jab-triggered immunity, posing the risk of another spike in infections.

They have key changes on their spike protein – used to invade cells – which make it harder for Covid-fighting antibodies to bind to them and stop an infection.

But some experts say that even with this risk, should a vaccinated Briton suffer an infection it will be mild and is unlikely lead to hospitalisation or death. 

Heralding the expansion of the roll-out, Mr Johnson said: ‘We have now passed another hugely significant milestone in our vaccine programme by offering jabs to everyone in the nine highest risk groups.

‘That means more than 32million people have been given the precious protection vaccines provide against Covid-19. I want to thank everyone involved in the vaccine rollout which has already saved many thousands of lives.’

And NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens added: ‘Thanks to our NHS nurses, doctors, pharmacists, operational managers and thousands of other staff and volunteers, the NHS Covid vaccination programme is without a doubt the most successful in our history.

‘It’s one of our tickets out of this pandemic and offers real hope for the future.’ 

It comes after surge testing was launched in Wandsworth and Lambeth today amid the discovery of a ‘significant’ cluster of cases of the South African variant.

Up to 70 cases have been identified by experts so far, and they fear more may have spilled into the community.

Health chiefs heralded the programme as the ‘largest surge testing operation to date’, with everyone over the age of 11 in the boroughs offered a PCR test.

They added all cases are isolating or have completed their isolation, and their contacts had been reached.

Urging residents to get tests, NHS test and trace boss Dr Susan Hopkins said: ‘It’s really important people in the local area play their part in stopping any further spread within the local community.

‘PCR testing is now available for all and I would strongly encourage everyone, whether they live, work or travel through the boroughs, to get tested even if they don’t have any symptoms of coronavirus.

‘Around one in three people with Covid-19 don’t show any symptoms.

‘By taking part you can protect yourselves and your loved ones and help us identify any possible new cases that would otherwise be missed, preventing further transmission and saving lives.’

Studies in Israel have suggested the South African variant – dubbed B.1.351 – may be able to dodge vaccine triggered immunity.

Published on Saturday, the research compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for Covid-19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease. It matched age and gender, among other characteristics.

The mutant strain was found to make up about one per cent of all the Covid-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel’s largest healthcare provider, Clalit.

But among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, its prevalence rate was eight times higher than those unvaccinated – 5.4 per cent versus 0.7 per cent.

This suggests the vaccine is less effective against the South African variant, compared with the original coronavirus and a variant first identified in Britain that has come to comprise nearly all Covid-19 cases in Israel, the researchers said.

‘We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared to the unvaccinated group. This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine’s protection,’ said Tel Aviv University’s Adi Stern.

The researchers cautioned, though, that the study only had a small sample size of people infected with the South African variant because of its rarity in Israel.

They also said the research was not intended to deduce overall vaccine effectiveness against any variant, since it only looked at people who had already tested positive for Covid-19, not at overall infection rates. Pfizer declined to comment on the Israeli study.

Pfizer and BioNTech said on April 1 that their vaccine was around 91 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19, citing updated trial data that included participants inoculated for up to six months.

They have been testing a third dose of their shot as a booster, and have said they could modify the shot to specifically address new variants if needed.

In respect to the South African variant, they said that among a group of 800 study volunteers in South Africa, where B.1.351 is widespread, there were nine cases of Covid-19, all of which occurred among participants who got the placebo. 

Of those nine cases, six were among individuals infected with the South African variant.

Some previous studies have indicated that the Pfizer/BioNTech shot was less potent against the B.1.351 variant than against other variants of the coronavirus, but still offered a robust defence.

While the results of the study may cause concern, the low prevalence of the South African strain was encouraging, according to Tel Aviv University’s Professor Stern.

‘Even if the South African variant does break through the vaccine’s protection, it has not spread widely through the population,’ they said, adding that the British variant may be ‘blocking’ the spread of the South African strain.

England – which took its next cautious step to freedom on Monday by allowing pubs and restaurants to reopen to customers outdoors – saw an increase in cases but no trend was visible in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, which all have different restrictions enforced.

No10’s scientific advisers have always warned easing restrictions would cause coronavirus infections to rise by allowing people to mix together but because millions of people have been vaccinated, the NHS shouldn’t be overwhelmed.

But experts tracking England’s outbreak say none of the planned steps taken so far – reopening schools on March 8 and dropping strict stay at home guidance on March 29 – have caused any noticeable problems.

Yesterday’s spike in infections can’t be blamed on hardy drinkers choosing to brave the snow and hailstones to celebrate the ‘Glorious Twelth’ in beer gardens across the country.

Instead, experts say it is ‘entirely possible’ the U-turn in the figures could be down to the Easter bank holiday. It takes up to seven days for people to show symptoms of Covid and get their test results back. 

Dr Simon Clarke, an infectious disease expert at the University of Reading, said the daily figure were an important reminder that the numbers are not ‘guaranteed to go down’ and that timing-wise the spike coincided with Easter.

The rise may also be explained by recording delays, with testing numbers known to dip on public holidays due to the way swabs are recorded and because fewer people come forward for them.