Reports this morning suggests that the UK regulator is set to approve the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine this week with a mayor roll out from the 4th January.
According to the Telegraph,The Government is aiming for two million people to receive their first dose of either the Oxford vaccine or the Pfizer jab within a fortnight as part of a major ramping up of the inoculation programme.
Meanwhile The head of the firm behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has raised hopes it is more effective than first thought amid the rapid spread of the new UK virus strain across the globe.
AstraZeneca chief Pascal Soriot said he believed researchers had found the “winning formula” using two doses and promised to publish the results as reports suggested the UK regulator could approve the jab within days.
The newws comes as dozens of hospital trusts are projected to have a third or half of their beds filled with Covid patients by New Year’s Eve. One senior NHS source said the service now had the equivalent of 40 hospitals full of infected patients. A senior government official said the new strain of Covid had overtaken the old and was “running rampant” in the UK.
In Wales the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is calling for “assistance from medical students or other staff groups who have previously supported with proning patients” in intensive care units. Proning is the process where people are turned onto their front to increase the flow of oxygen to the lungs.
