Ahead Of Lifting Restrictions, 20 Million British Citizens Completed COVID-19 Vaccinated

Ilustrasi vaksin COVID-19. (Wikimedia Commons/Ministry of Defense of Peru)

JAKARTA - If there is no cross section, the UK will lift restrictions due to COVID-19 in most of its territories on Monday. Economic activity will reopen.

Outdoor activities will also be allowed to return, such as drinking in the pub, eating food in restaurants, and re-watching movies at the beloved cinema.

This was made possible after a variety of comprehensive COVID-19 handling efforts, including with the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. The day before the lockdown, more than 20 million Britons had been vaccinated for COVID-19 or had received two doses of the vaccine.

Government statistics show 20,103,658 million have received two doses of their vaccine, or 38.2 percent of the adult population. And 36,573,354, or 69.4 per cent of the adult population, have received the first dose since the start of the campaign in the UK on 8 December.

UK Health Minister Matt Hancock said the vaccination programme had made the extraordinary move to reach 20 million.

"Receiving a second dose is essential to ensure you have the highest protection from this deadly virus," Hancock said, speaking to Reuters Monday, May 17.

Meanwhile, UK Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi said the current developments were a remarkable milestone for the UK.

"It's inspiring to see the overwhelming public response to our call for an injection," Zahawi said.

"We have one of the highest rates of vaccine absorption in the world, but our work is not yet complete," he continued.

For the record, it is different from clinical trials where the second vaccine is administered after four weeks of administering the first vaccine. The UK voted to delay administering a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 12 weeks after the first.

However, the plan to open restrictions remains closely watched as the corona virus variant is called more contagious from India.

To fight the new strain of COVID-19, the government says it will accelerate the introduction of a second dose of the vaccine into the over-50s and is clinically vulnerable, cutting the interval from the first inoculation to eight weeks.

Data from Public Health England (PHE) shows the vaccine has had a significant impact, saving more than 11,700 lives and preventing 33,000 hospital admissions in England by the end of April.

Broadly speaking, the UK is targeting all adults in the country who have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of July.