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LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign has weakened the link between infections and deaths, but it has not yet been completely severed, the head of a science advisory body said on Sunday with the government.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to lift most of the remaining coronavirus restrictions on July 19 after being forced to postpone any further easing this month due to a growing number of cases largely due to the Delta variant, more infectious.
Peter Horby, chairman of the Government’s Advisory Group on New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats (NERVTAG), told the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show” that Britain was experiencing “a much lower level of hospitalization”.
He was asked if there was enough data to say that vaccinations had severed the link between the virus and serious illness and death.
“They’ve definitely weakened the link,” Horby said of the immunization program, which gave a first dose to over 80% of the adult population and a second dose to over 60%, according to official data.
“We’re definitely seeing an increase in infection rates, but what we’re seeing is a much lower level of hospitalization, so that link is really, really a lot lower, which is really fantastic but it’s not completely. broken.”
The UK recorded 18,270 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, the largest daily increase since February 5, and 23 deaths, according to official data. Overall, Britain has recorded one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the world, with more than 128,000 deaths.
Horby also said that it could be justified to argue that the arrival and spread of the Delta variant – which has resulted in the current wave of infections – could have been delayed or prevented had stricter border measures been put in place. in place.
“But there is an obvious trade-off that policymakers and politicians have to make between absolute and comprehensive restrictions and stopping various viruses,” he added.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, editing by Frances Kerry)
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