UK reaches 15m COVID jab milestone, eyes next vaccination phase

Prime Minister Boris Johnson hails hitting ‘significant’ occasion two months after the country embarked on the biggest vaccination programme.

The United Kingdom’s government says it has met a target of offering at least a first coronavirus vaccine shot to the most vulnerable people in England by mid-February, reaching some 15 million people in four priority groups. The vaccine programme is seen as one of few successes in the government’s handling of a pandemic that has left the country of about 67 million people with a higher death toll and worse economic damage than many others. After becoming the first in the world to approve a vaccine, the British government set an ambitious February 15 target date to reach 15 million care home residents and staff, front-line health and care workers, all those aged 70 or above and the clinically extremely vulnerable.