UK COVID Vaccination: First Dose To High-Risk Group, Second Dose After Three Months

Citing the rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalisation due the new coronavirus strain, the UK government has decided to increase the duration between two Oxford vaccine doses to be administered to its citizens.?

While the vaccine shots were supposed to be given over a four-week period, they will now be administered three months apart.

Reuters

The move is to accelerate the rollout of initial doses of the vaccine to the public. This would allow more people in the UK to be inoculated in a shorter time frame. The policy will also apply to the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.

As quoted in a report by The Independent, the Department for Health and Social Care stated: "Having studied evidence on both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, the JCVI has advised the priority should be to give as many people in at-risk groups their first dose, rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible.”

The new approach will continue to prioritise at-risk groups. The report also mentions that the UK government is aiming to provide protection to all those in the risk groups by the end of April.

(Representative Image: Reuters)

"Everyone will still receive their second dose and this will be within 12 weeks of their first. The second dose completes the course and is important for longer term protection,” the department said.

New strategy

The UK will implement the newfound strategy starting today, with priority to those in the most high-risk groups. The intent is to utilise both the approved vaccines to protect as many people at highest risk from the ongoing wave as possible.

The one looming concern was the lack of data on efficacy of vaccines when delivered three months apart. Throughout the testing phase of the Oxford vaccine, the two doses were administered four weeks apart.

AstraZeneca, however, confirmed that some sub-groups of volunteers were injected with a second dose after three months of getting their first. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, said that further data regarding such dosage patterns collected from its trials had been submitted to the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.