LONDON -- The U.K. government plans to offer a first dose of covid-19 vaccine to every adult by September as the nation's health care system battles the worst crisis in its 72-year-history.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Sunday that the government will soon begin a trial of round-the-clock injections at some locations as it continues to add more vaccination sites to increase the pace of delivery. The National Health Service opened a mass vaccination center on Saturday at the historic Salisbury Cathedral, where injections were accompanied by organ music.
"Our target is by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose," he told Sky News. "If we can do it faster than that, great, but that's the road map."
Britain has more than 51 million adults in its population of 67.5 million people.
The ambitious vaccination program comes amid crushing pressures on the National Health Service. Already beleaguered hospitals are admitting another covid-19 patient every 30 seconds, putting the service in its most precarious situation ever, said Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England.
"The facts are very clear, and I'm not going to sugarcoat them: Hospitals are under extreme pressure, and staff are under extreme pressure," he told the BBC. "Since Christmas Day, we've seen another 15,000 increase in the in-patients in hospitals across England. That's the equivalent of filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients."
Britain's health care system is staggering as doctors and nurses battle a more contagious variant of the coronavirus coupled with cold, wet winter weather that drives people inside, where infections spread more easily.
The surge in infections has pushed the number of people hospitalized with covid-19 to a record 37,475, more than 73% higher than during the first peak of the pandemic in April. Britain has reported 88,747 coronavirus-related deaths, more than any other country in Europe and the fifth-highest number worldwide.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Jan. 2 ordered England into its third national lockdown in an effort to slow the spread of the virus and protect the NHS, which Stevens said now has some 50,000 employees off work due to covid-19 infections and exposure quarantines.
The government says it won't review the lockdown measures until mid-February, by which time it plans to offer at least one dose of vaccine to everyone over 70, as well as to front-line health care workers and others who are especially vulnerable to covid-19.
Once that goal has been reached, the U.K. will offer the vaccine to everyone over 50 before finally moving on to everyone over 18.
RESTRICTION RESISTANCE
In other parts of Europe, governments have faced resistance as they have increased restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Police in Amsterdam turned a water cannon on hundreds of demonstrators who were taking part in a banned protest Sunday against the Dutch government and its tough coronavirus lockdown.
Police on horseback also moved in to break up the demonstration on a large square ringed by museums, including the Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum.
Amsterdam municipality said riot police took action to disperse the crowd because people weren't adhering to social distancing measures.
"Because of the danger to public health, it is important that everybody sticks to the measures in force. The demonstrators are not doing that," the municipality said in a tweet.
By mid-afternoon, the square was empty apart from dozens of police, although some protesters remained in streets nearby.
The demonstration had been banned last week because of fears that too many people would attend and not stick to social distancing.
The protest in Amsterdam happened as ministers in the Netherlands' caretaker government were meeting in The Hague to discuss options to rein in the spread of the coronavirus, including the possibility of imposing a curfew for the first time since the pandemic began.
In Italy, the autonomous province of South Tyrol with its German-speaking majority is flouting Rome's decision to put it under partial lockdown starting Sunday, with provincial authorities citing its autonomous status to allow stores and restaurants to remain open.
Provincial officials are contesting the criteria that prompted the Rome government to designate South Tyrol a red zone, along with Lombardy and Sicily. The designations require authorities to close nonessential businesses and bars all indoor dining, permitting only takeout and delivery.
Provincial Gov. Arno Kompatscher said he was "surprised" by the designation. He has registered his disagreement with Italy's health minister and is staking the province's case to the technical committee in Rome. But he isn't waiting for a response, instead allowing all stores to stay open and restaurants to serve until 10 p.m., defying Rome as he did in May when he invoked autonomy to reopen businesses earlier than in the rest of the country.
"This is not a political question, it is technical. We have many more beds available -- perhaps this was not taken into consideration," Kompatscher told RAI state television.
Health officials argue that the high percentage of positives is due to additional screenings with antibody tests that are revealing more positives and claim that the technical committee in Rome didn't take into account its decreasing rate of transmission. The province of 520,000 people has registered more than 800 deaths and nearly 33,000 positive cases.
Lombardy governor Atilio Fontana also contests his region's partial lockdown. He is taking his case to an administrative court this week in a bid to get it overturned, his only recourse.
In Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Sunday that some measures will also be tightened as a result of the more infectious variants that were first detected in Britain and South Africa. He said people will now be asked to stay 6 feet apart instead of 3 feet.
Beginning on Jan. 25, they will also be required to wear full protective masks on public transport and in shops, rather than just fabric face coverings. People on low incomes will get such masks free, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said.
Austria's current lockdown, its third, started on Dec. 26 and was to end on Jan. 24. Kurz said Austria is keen to avoid a situation such as that in Britain and Ireland, where infections have risen sharply and rapidly as new variants take hold. So far, Austria has over 150 suspected infections with the British variant, Anschober said.
CASES RISE IN SOUTH AFRICA
Meanwhile, South Africa has delayed reopening its schools as the nation faces a rapid resurgence of covid-19 overwhelming the country's hospitals and driven by a more infectious variant of the virus.
The variant is having far-reaching consequences for Africa's most developed nation as several countries trying to prevent its spread have stopped or reduced flights with South Africa.
South Africa has the highest prevalence of covid-19 in Africa with a cumulative total of more than 1.3 million confirmed cases, including 36,851 deaths.
In 24 hours, the country had recorded 13,973 new infections and 348 deaths.
South Africa's 7-day rolling average of daily new cases has risen over the past two weeks from 22 new cases per 100,000 people on Jan. 2 to 26 new cases per 100,000 people on Jan. 16, according to Johns Hopkins University.
"Given the pressure experienced by the health system in the past few weeks, occasioned by increased covid-19 infections, which has led to the second wave, the council of education ministers in conjunction with the national coronavirus command council and Cabinet has taken the decision to delay the reopening of both public and private schools," said basic education deputy minister Reginah Mhaule.
The department has not released statistics of how many teachers or students have succumbed to covid-19, but two teachers are confirmed to have died recently during the marking of last year's examination.
"Some of our markers have passed away, while others withdrew from marking due to fear and anxiety but also because some of their own family members have tested positive," said Mhaule.
South Africa's education officials are expected today to announce plans for universities and colleges, which closed last year as part of restrictions.
Information for this article was contributed by Mogomotsi Magome, Colleen Barry and staff members of The Associated Press.
