4.6m people in UK given Covid vaccine amid pressures for tougher lockdown

The UK has now given doses of the coronavirus vaccine to 4.6 million people, Matt Hancock has said, as he came under pressure to consider tougher restrictions given concerns that cases of the virus may not be falling.

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, the health secretary said more than 5m doses had been given, also counting more than 400,000 second injections.

“This virus is a lethal threat to us all and, as we respond through this huge endeavour, let’s all take comfort in the fact we’re giving 200 vaccinations every minute,” said Hancock, who was appearing from home, as he is self-isolating after being alerted by the test-and-trace app this week.

Of older care home residents, 63% had now been vaccinated, he added.

But Hancock was pressed on possible new restrictions after an Imperial College London study based on swab tests from more than 142,000 people across England between 6 and 15 January suggested that while new infections may have fallen recently they could be stable or even growing slightly.

Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary who now chairs the Commons health select committee, asked whether the UK should enforce new arrivals to the country to quarantine in hotels, end mixing outside households and bubbles, and follow Germany in mandating full protective filter masks in shops and on public transport.

Hancock said: “We have looked at the question of PPE with respect to the new variant and the clinical advice I’ve received is the current guidelines are right and appropriate.”

Speaking for Labour, the shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, sought updates on whether it was known if newer variants of the virus, such as that identified in South Africa, could hamper the efficacy of vaccines.

Hancock said the “early indications are that the new variant is dealt with by the vaccine just as much as the old variant”.

Ashworth pressed Hancock on the Imperial survey, calling it “alarming”, and asking why, given infections were so high in London, the capital and the east of England seemed to be lagging in vaccination numbers.

“Yesterday the prime minister referred to ‘constraints in supply’,” Ashworth said. “What are these constraints, what guarantees has he got from manufacturers that they will be resolved, and by when?”

Hancock replied only that he had acknowledged supply could limit the vaccination programme, and that there was at time “a lumpy supply schedule”.

He said: “The manufacturers are working incredibly hard to deliver the supply as fast as possible, and I pay tribute to them and their work, but it is challenging and therefore it isn’t possible to give certainty as far out as many GPs and those delivering on the ground would like – because the worst thing would be to give false certainty.”