The slowdown to the UK’s Covid-19 vaccination programme in April has been forced by a shortfall in scheduled deliveries of AstraZeneca product from India, as well as the need to retest the stability of a further 1.7m doses, health secretary Matt Hancock has said.
Mr Hancock told the House of Commons that the shortfall in supplies from India’s Serum Institute – understood to involve 4m doses – meant that availability of vaccines in April will be “tighter” than this month, when the UK has enjoyed “bumper weeks” of mass vaccination.
But sources inside the Institute denied that there had been any hold-up.
A source with knowledge of the matter told The Independent “there was no specific timeframe” for the next order to be sent to the UK, so “there’s no question of it being delayed.”
Five million doses were sent from the Serum Institute to the UK earlier, the source confirmed, adding: “And the remaining will be sent soon”.
Mr Hancock insisted that there will be no cancellations of vaccine appointments due to the supply issues and no weeks in April in which no Britons receive their first jab.
Pressure on supplies will be heightened in April because of the need to administer around 12m second jabs to over-50s and members of other priority groups who have received first doses up to 12 weeks ago, the health secretary said.
Mr Hancock told the House of Commons that the shortfall in supplies from India’s Serum Institute meant that availability of vaccines in April will be “tighter” than this month, when the UK has enjoyed “bumper weeks” of mass vaccination.
But he insisted that there will be no cancellations of vaccine appointments due to the supply issues and no weeks in April in which no Britons receive their first jab. And he said the UK remained on track to protect all over-50s by 15 April and all adults by the end of July as planned.
Pressure on supplies will be heightened in April because of the need to administer around 12m second jabs to over-50s and members of other priority groups who have received first doses up to 12 weeks ago, the health secretary said.
“Throughout the vaccination programme, the pace of rollout has always been determined by the availability of supply,” Mr Hancock told MPs.
“The process of manufacturing vaccines is complicated, and subject to unpredictability. And because we get supplies out into the field so fast through our highly lean delivery system changes in future supply schedules impact on the weekly availability of vaccine. That has been true throughout.”
Mr Hancock said the UK was currently ”in the middle of some bumper weeks of supply” and was able to deliver over half a million vaccines both yesterday and today.
But he told MPs: “In the last week, we’ve had a batch of 1.7 million doses delayed because of the need to retest its stability. Events like this are to be expected in a manufacturing endeavour of this complexity. And this shows the rigour of our safety checks.
“And we have a delay in a scheduled arrival from the Serum Institute of India. I want to put on the record my gratitude to the Serum Institute of India for the incredible work that they’re doing, producing vaccine, not just for us in the UK, but for the whole world.
“Their technology, and their capability, which has been approved by the MHRA is remarkable, the Serum Institute of India are producing a billion doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine this year. It truly is a partnership that we can be proud of.”
