COVID-19: As UK opens up, PM Johnson asks people not to get carried away with over-optimism
Dec 02, 2020
London [UK], December 3 : UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday asked citizens of his country not to get carried away with over-optimism after the end of national restrictions and opening up several parts of the economy amid the pandemic.
"It's vital that we are not carried away with over-optimism or fall into the naive belief that the struggle is over. Today, in England, we have ended national restrictions, opening up significant parts of the economy," said Boris Johnson during a press conference.
"There are immense logistical challenges. The vials are going to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius, each person needs two injections, three weeks apart. So it will inevitably take some months before almost vulnerable are protected," he added.
Talking about securing the vaccine doses for the UK, he said, "We have purchased more than 350 million doses of 7 different vaccine candidates and the UK was the first country in the world to preorder supplies of this Pfizer vaccine, securing 40 million doses."
"Through our winter plan, the National Health Service is preparing for the biggest programme of mass vaccination in the history of the UK, and that is going to begin next week," he added.
Last month, AstraZeneca's vice president, Jose Baselga, announced that the company's vaccine had already been launched into mass production.
He said that 3 billion doses of this drug would be ready at the beginning of 2021, with one dose to be sold at a price of about two euros.
According to Johns Hopkins University, there are 1,663,405 cases in the United Kingdom.
