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LONDON: The arrival of a vaccine should see Britain’s coronavirus deaths “significantly” drop early next year, but social mixing around Christmas could cause another spike before then, UK medical chiefs said. on Friday (December 4).
Britain on Wednesday granted emergency approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine and the first global rollout will begin from next week.
“We believe that by spring the effects of vaccination will likely begin to be felt by significantly reducing admissions, attendance and deaths from COVID-19, but there are many weeks left before we reach that stage,” said England’s medical directors Scotland. Wales and Northern Ireland said.
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But the country’s health chiefs warned that the deployment of the vaccine will have “only a marginal impact on reducing the numbers entering the health service with COVID-19 over the next three months.”
Deploying the vaccines “safely, rapidly and in a sequence that is most likely to reduce mortality” will also be “a very considerable logistical exercise,” they added.
The letter to healthcare professionals said they should prepare for more pressure on the system after Christmas, with social mixing rules relaxed during the festive period to allow three households to come together.
“The social mixing that occurs around Christmas may well put additional pressure on hospitals and general practice in the New Year and we must be prepared for that,” the CMO said.
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Britain has recorded more than 60,000 deaths of people who tested positive for the virus, the worst figure in Europe.
While the daily death toll remains high, cases have been declining in recent days and medical chiefs said the number of hospitals “is likely to decline in the coming weeks” in most parts of the country.
Looking long term, they said the coronavirus was not expected to completely disappear, but it will be “substantially less important as a cause of mortality and morbidity.”
The letter was signed by England CMO Chris Whitty, his Scottish counterpart Gregor Smith, Frank Atherton from Wales and Michael McBride from Northern Ireland.
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