Covid: First dose of Oxford vaccine to be rolled out to as many people as possible before second jab

The Oxford vaccine will now be administered in two doses three months apart, rather than over a four-week period, allowing more people in the UK to be inoculated over a shorter time frame.

The policy will also apply to the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which was approved for use across the four nations earlier this month.

At-risk groups will continue to be prioritised under the new approach, with the government aiming to provide protection among all of the population’s most vulnerable by the end of April, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said.

Amid an escalation in cases and hospitalisations across the UK – driven by the new, highly contagious coronavirus variant – government health officials have heeded calls to roll out initial supplies of the vaccines to as many people as possible, rather than holding back the second doses.

The Department for Health and Social Care said: "Having studied evidence on both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, the JCVI has advised the priority should be to give as many people in at-risk groups their first dose, rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible.

"Everyone will still receive their second dose and this will be within 12 weeks of their first. The second dose completes the course and is important for longer term protection.

"From today the NHS across the UK will prioritise giving the first dose of the vaccine to those in the most high-risk groups.

"With two vaccines now approved, we will be able to vaccinate a greater number of people who are at highest risk, protecting them from the disease and reducing mortality and hospitalisation."

In a joint statement, the chief medical officers of the four nations said they agreed with the JCVI that first doses should be prioritised. 

Throughout the testing phase of the Oxford vaccine, trial participants were given a second dose four weeks after receiving their first.

However, AstraZeneca confirmed that some sub-groups of volunteers were injected with a second dose following a three-month wait.

Pfizer said that its assessments of safety and efficacy of its own jab are based on a two-dose schedule, separated by 21 days, and it urged surveillance of any "alternative" dosing regimens.

In an interview with the Sunday Times over the weekend, Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, described the new approach as “winning formula” and said it was able to induce efficacy “that, after two doses, is up there with everybody else”.

Mr Soriot said that further data regarding dosage, collected from the vaccine’s large-scale trials, had been submitted to the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Last week, former prime minister Tony Blair said that the UK’s vaccination plan needed to be “altered and radically accelerated” in response to the new coronavirus variant.

Writing for The Independent, he urged decision-makers to use up all of the first batch of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on as many people as people while a second round is produced.

The idea has been backed by Professor David Salisbury, who oversaw immunisation at the Department of Health and Social Care until 2003.

“With current circumstances, I would strongly urge using as many first doses as you possibly can for risk groups and, only after you have done all of that, come back with second doses," he said.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has meanwhile said the UK had enough vaccine supplies ordered to inoculate "the whole population".

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said the under-50s will receive a jab, even though their likelihood of dying from Covid-19 is "much lower".

He said: "The under-50s... firstly they'll get the vaccine if they are clinically vulnerable to coronavirus and if they've been receiving letters during the whole pandemic about shielding and the specific arrangements that are necessary for those who are clinically vulnerable."

"And then once we've vaccinated all of them, and the over-50s, which is a significant chunk of the population, then we will continue to vaccinate the under-50s, even though the likelihood of dying from the disease is much lower if you're under the age of 50.

"So I can now say with confidence that we can vaccinate everyone, except of course for children because this vaccine has not been trialled on children, and anyway children are much, much less likely to have symptoms from the disease."