UK steps up vaccination as travel corridors are closed

LONDON • Britain will step up its mass coronavirus vaccination programme this week, offering shots to millions more people, as the country shuts its borders to anyone who has not tested negative.

Vaccines would be offered to people aged at least 70 and those deemed "clinically extremely vulnerable" from yesterday - the third and fourth priority groups.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it a "significant milestone" in the vaccination effort.

The government aims to offer the vaccine to all British adults by September. So far, almost 3.9 million people have received their first dose.

Travel corridors with other countries were closed from yesterday, meaning that all visitors from abroad now require a negative test result within 72 hours of travel to enter Britain.

Health officials will step up checks to ensure they self-isolate at home for the next 10 days.

The government has not ruled out setting up quarantine hotels or using GPS trackers to make sure people stay put.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News on Sunday that the government would consider "all possibilities" to enforce Covid-19 rules and prevent any new variants of the virus derailing Britain's vaccination efforts.

Forcing travellers to stay in dedicated hotels on arrival would still put Britain many months behind other countries, including Australia which introduced the policy last March.

England is in its third national lockdown, with schools closed and people ordered to stay at home as the government tries to control the surge in cases over the winter.

There are more than 37,000 Covid-19 patients hospitalised, and the daily death toll remains high - with another 671 deaths recorded on Sunday.

Mr Johnson's government is pinning its hopes on the vaccination campaign to end the crisis.

The National Health Service will begin rolling out the shot to the two new groups this week because some areas of England have already vaccinated the top two priority groups: the over-80s and front-line health and care workers.

"We have a long way to go and there will doubtless be challenges ahead - but by working together we are making huge progress in our fight against this virus," Mr Johnson said.

The current lockdown is set to be reviewed in mid-February, but ministers have warned there will be no quick return to normalcy.

Mr Raab said restrictions would begin to be lifted only by the "early spring". Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi yesterday suggested lockdown rules could be relaxed only in the first half of March.

BLOOMBERG