Recommendation 25

When it was first rolled-out, the vaccine programme included a three-week break between people receiving their first and second doses. In December 2020, the Government announced that the second dose of the vaccine would be administered 12 weeks after the first dose.73 We asked why this decision had been made and whether it would be reviewed in light of the current, or future, lockdowns. The Department explained that the decision was based on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and the Chief Medical Officers and “basic maths” that it was better to get a first dose to as many vulnerable people as possible and delay the second dose, than to give second doses to the same people. It emphasised that the second dose was still very important to vaccinating people against the virus, but the more the virus spread, the more important it was to maximise the number of people who had the first dose. It confirmed that its decision was not explicitly linked to the lockdown, and it would “keep all those things under constant review as the evidence develops”.74 67 As of 10 February, in the UK, 12,646,486 people had received a first dose and 516,392 people had received a second dose, indicating that the government is on track to achieve this target. https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/ details/vaccinations 68 Q 6 69 Q 6, C&AG’s Report, para 4.2 70 Q 74 71 Qq 3, 20–23 72 NHS England – Data on CVID-19 Vaccinations 73 Statement from the UK Chief Medical Officers on the prioritisation of the first does of COVID-19 vaccines, 30 December 2020 74 Qq 51–52 COVID-19: Planning for a vaccine Part 1 19 Expected take-up of the vaccine