The British government announced on Wednesday that it would acquire 114 million new doses of Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna to continue its immunization campaign in 2022 and 2023 in the face of new variants such as Omicron.
Read alsoVaccines: the third dose should offer protection against the Omicron variant
This announcement of the acquisition of 60 million doses of Moderna and 54 million of Pfizer / BioNTech comes at a time when the executive has given a boost to its recall campaign, with the aim of offering a third dose to all adults by the end of January, given the emergence of the Omicron variant. One of the most bereaved countries in Europe with more than 145,000 dead, the United Kingdom had counted 32 cases of this variant on Wednesday, suspected of being very contagious.
"The new contracts with Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna have been accelerated in view of the new variant,"
the government said in a statement. They
"include access to modified vaccines if they are necessary to combat Omicron or future variants of concern"
,he added.
115 million doses administered
The UK has so far administered more than 115 million doses in total, said Health Minister Sajid Javid.
"It is a national mission, and our best weapon to face this virus and its variants is to be vaccinated"
, he insisted.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also meets with the bosses of major pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer and GSK, on Thursday to discuss how to deal with "emerging variants and future pandemics" and lessons to be learned for other challenges. health issues such as cancer, dementia and obesity.
