LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th October, 2020) UK Health Minister, Matt Hancock, said on Monday that the program to find a vaccine against the novel coronavirus "is progressing well", but he does not expect the jab to be rolled out this year, as a UK newspaper has claimed.
"We want to be ready in case everything goes perfectly but it's not my central expectation that we'll be doing that this year," Hancock told the BBC broadcaster.
He said he was aware of The Sun tabloid's Monday report claiming that the London health chief was on standby to start taking deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines stocks as soon as "from next week."
"Preparing for a rollout, and actually having the stuff to rollout are two different things," Hancock stressed.
After stressing that "we're not there yet", the health minister said the bulk of the roll out should be expected in the first half of next year.
Citing "Health sources", The Sun reported that a major London hospital trust had been told to be ready to receive the first batches of the vaccine being developed by the Oxford University in partnership with the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Phase 3 clinical trials of the vaccine known as AZD1222 are ongoing in the UK, the US, India and Brazil.
