Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the Chase Farm Hospital, in north London, to see people receive Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, Monday, January 4.
Britain began vaccinating its population with Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot Monday in a world first, racing to give protection to the elderly and vulnerable as a new surge of cases threatened to overwhelm hospitals.
Cases of COVID-19 have risen sharply in Britain in recent weeks, fueled by a new and more transmissible variant of the virus. On Sunday there were nearly 55,000 new cases and in total more than 75,000 people in the country have died with COVID-19 during the pandemic – the second highest toll in Europe.
Visiting a hospital to see the first people receive the vaccine made by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the country faced “tough, tough” weeks to come.
“If you look at the numbers, there’s no question that we’re going to have to take tougher measures and we’ll be announcing those in due course,” Johnson said. “We’ve got the virus really surging.”
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday the government is not ruling out new restrictions as the coronavirus continues to spread even in areas with the strictest constraints.
Britain has reported more than 2.6 million COVID-19 cases and more than 75,000 deaths according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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