It is one of the most advanced vaccination campaigns in the world, in the most bereaved country in Europe. The United Kingdom has fully vaccinated 20 million people against Covid-19, or nearly 40% of the adult population, on the eve of a major stage of deconfinement, according to official figures released Sunday, May 16.
The pandemic has killed more than 3.3 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established on Sunday by Agence France-Presse from official sources.
UK: first dose target for all adults by July
In detail, 20,103,658 people have received two doses of the vaccine since the launch of the UK vaccination campaign in early December, and 36,573,354 have received a single injection. The goal is to administer a first dose to all adults by the end of July. “Receiving a second dose is essential to ensure that you have optimal protection against this deadly virus”, insisted the Minister of Health, Matt Hancock, in a statement.
The British government has made mass vaccination of the population a flagship measure of its strategy to exit the health crisis after long months of confinement in the United Kingdom, the most bereaved country in Europe with nearly 128,000 deaths.
After the reopening of terraces and non-essential shops in April, England is preparing on Monday to reopen indoor pubs and restaurants, cultural venues, hotels and stadiums with a capacity limited to 10,000 spectators maximum.
This picture is, however, clouded by local outbreaks of the Indian variant, in the north-west of England and in London, which, according to the executive, could compromise the final phase of deconfinement, scheduled for June 21 with the lifting of almost all restrictions.
To counter its spread, the interval between the two doses of vaccine has been reduced to eight weeks, instead of three months currently, for people over 50 and the most vulnerable.
Return of tourism to Portugal, demonstration in Lisbon
After the United Kingdom, Portugal will allow tourists from most European countries from Monday, the Portuguese interior ministry announced on Saturday.
At the same time, hundreds of people, mostly without masks, gathered in Lisbon on Saturday to protest against health rules and defend “Individual freedoms”.
More than 70,000 dead in Argentina
Argentina exceeded the threshold of 70,000 deaths from the coronavirus on Saturday, while the average of new daily cases of contamination stands at more than 20,000, according to the authorities. According to the latest report from the health ministry, 400 people have died in the past twenty-four hours.
In India, confinement in Bengal
The Indian state of West Bengal, particularly hit by the pandemic after mass electoral rallies in April, imposed a two-week lockdown on Saturday in an attempt to curb the contaminations. This state, whose hospitals are overwhelmed, recorded 21,000 new cases of contamination out of the 326,000 reported in India on Saturday.