Key Points
The approval and deployment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is seen as a boon in the race against Covid-19 as it is cheaper than alternatives created by Pfizer and BioNTech and Moderna. In a statement Monday, the U.K. government said that more than half a million doses are now available "with tens of millions more to be delivered in the coming weeks and months once batches have been quality checked by the MHRA."
On Monday, Hancock told Sky News that the U.K. could not roll out the vaccine any faster than the supply allows but experts agree the U.K. needs to step up its vaccination program as quickly as possible. Last week, a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine concluded that Britain must vaccinate two million people a week to avoid a third wave of the coronavirus outbreak.