Covid vaccine: Supply issues 'will not impact roadmap' in England - Hancock

Delays to the UK's Covid vaccine supply in April will not affect people getting their second doses or England's roadmap out of lockdown, the health secretary says.

Matt Hancock told MPs: "We are on track for the dates in the roadmap and there is no impact" to the planned easing of coronavirus restrictions.

The UK's supply has been affected by a delayed shipment from India, he said.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the delays were "a cause of concern".

NHS England warned of a reduction in supply in April in a letter sent to local health organisations on Wednesday.

In a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Hancock also revealed that a separate batch of 1.7 million doses was held up as it needed to be retested.

He said the government was still "on track" to deliver on the "targets to offer the vaccine to everyone 50 and over, and all adults by the end of July".

He added that he wanted to give reassurance that "there will be no weeks in April with no first doses".

"There will be no cancelled appointments as a result of supply issues - second doses will go ahead as planned," he said.

Around 12 million people will receive their second dose next month, Mr Hancock said, adding that they could not be delayed as they had to be delivered within 12 weeks of the first dose.

Dates in England's roadmap for easing coronavirus restrictions are conditional on four tests being met, including the vaccine programme continuing to go to plan.

Mr Hancock said the roadmap had not been affected by the "changes to vaccine supply that we've been detailing in the last 24 hours".

Sir Keir said the vaccine rollout had "been going really, really well" and he was "concerned about the delays".

Speaking during a visit to a vaccination centre in Edinburgh, he said: "We need to get to the bottom of it and we need transparency from the government about what the problem is."

An expected reduction in the UK's supply in April is partly due to a delay in the delivery from the Serum Institute of India of five million Oxford-AstraZeneca doses, which has been held up by four weeks.

A spokesperson for the Serum Institute said: "Five million doses had been delivered a few weeks ago to the UK and we will try to supply more later, based on the current situation and the requirement for the government immunisation programme in India."

More than 25 million people in the UK have had a first dose of a Covid vaccine, while around 1.7 million have had a second jab.

After opening up appointments to all over-50s on Wednesday, the NHS in England was then told not to offer jabs to younger age groups throughout April.

The Scottish government has said it is "confident" vaccine targets will be met, while the governments in Wales and Northern Ireland said they were examining how their own vaccine programmes could be affected.

The rest of the UK's AstraZeneca doses are being produced domestically and the company says there are no supply issues.

Pfizer, which produces its vaccine in Belgium, says its deliveries to the NHS are also on track.

The UK has also approved a third vaccine, made by Moderna, and Mr Hancock said he is expecting supplies "in the coming weeks".

More than 400 million doses of Covid vaccines have been ordered by the UK, including jabs made by Valneva, GlaxoSmithKline, Novavax and Janssen, which are yet to be approved.

Predicting what supply is available in the future is difficult. Vaccine production is a biological process so manufacturers can never absolutely guarantee how much will be available.

When you are relying on supplies from abroad there's an added element of complexity.

The UK only has two plants that are currently producing an approved vaccine - both make the AstraZeneca jab. Stocks of Pfizer come from Belgium. Both these supply routes are currently delivering what has been forecast.

A deal was done with India to supply 10 million doses. But it was always made clear the exact date of shipment could not be absolutely guaranteed.

The government had understood the full shipment would arrive in time for mid-March and felt it needed to get vaccination clinics ready to do extra doses. They have now had to be stood down.

It comes after expectations were ramped up at the weekend after briefing to the media that the target to offer all adults a jab by the end of July could be hit a month early.

Those hopes now seem to have been dashed. Another reminder of just how fragile supply is.

The Serum Institute of India is the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines and is making one billion doses of the AstraZeneca jab this year for low and middle-income countries.

Its chief executive, Adar Poonawalla, has previously called for patience over global vaccine deliveries, saying the company has been "directed to prioritise the huge needs of India".

He has also raised concerns about raw material shortages, attributing this to US export bans on specific items needed to make vaccines, such as specialised bags and filters.

Earlier this month, it agreed to supply 10 million doses for the UK, but only half of these will arrive this month with the rest delayed for several weeks.

On Monday NHS sources said there would be a big increase in the number of people being offered vaccinations in the coming days after the UK received the first shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India.

Prof Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said over the next two weeks the NHS would be pushing on with vaccinating over-50s and vulnerable people while it had a "bumper supply".

He said the announcement of a shortage was "disappointing" news and it would impact "the group we were hoping to start on in April which is the people under the age of 50 without any pre-existing conditions" who would now have to wait until May.