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More at-risk people need to be vaccinated faster, experts have said, as they agreed to a new dosing regimen which will see a speedier rollout of the coronavirus vaccines.
The group of experts, which advise the Government on vaccination, said that the focus should be on giving at-risk people the first dose of whichever vaccine they receive, rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said that everyone who receives the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccines will still receive their second dose and this will be within 12 weeks of the first.
Pfizer warned today there is no data to show a single dose of its coronavirus vaccine provides long-term protection, after the UK scrapped its original jab rollout plan.
The UK medical regulator is now recommending Covid jabs are given in two doses three months apart, rather than over the intended four-week period, to allow millions more people to be immunised over a shorter time period.
The strategy will apply to both Pfizer/BioNTech s vaccine and the newly approved jab by Oxford/AstraZeneca, despite limited data around the effectiveness of the initial doses.
It is a direct response to spiking Covid cases and hospitalisations across the UK that are being driven by a new, highly-infectious strain that emerged in the South East England in September.
Why the second dose of the Covid vaccine is now being administered up to 12 weeks after the first
Some scientists have welcomed the decision but Pfizer said that it only assessed its vaccine on a two-dose regimen whereby people were given the jab three weeks apart
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