WITH three Covid vaccines now approved for use, the UK is rapidly scaling up its vaccination programme.
Already 2.4 million people in the UK have received the first dose of their vaccine, either the Pfizer or Oxford jab, including a third of over 80s.
Click here to use the online Covid vaccine calculator
The Government has a list of nine high-priority groups it aims to get through before the general population will get vaccinated.
But ministers have pledged to have all the most vulnerable jabbed by mid February, and all over 50s by May.
A 47-page plan, revealed this week, explains how millions of Brits will get the vaccine in the coming weeks and months.
But an online calculator predicts that at the current rate of roll out, millions might not get a jab until 2022.
The tool uses your age, health and whether you work for the NHS to determine where you are in the queue.
It can be adjusted based on how fast the vaccines are deployed – with a speedy operation the key to ending lockdowns.
Boris Johnson has vowed to open 50 mass vaccination centres across the country by next month in a bid to end lockdown early.
This week, as well as seven mass vaccination hubs, hundreds more GP-led and hospital services along with the first pharmacy-led pilot sites, will open – taking the total to around 1,200.
When will you get your vaccine?
Omni’s vaccine queue calculator will estimate for you how many people are ahead of you in the queue to get a Covid vaccine in the UK.
It also predicts how long you might have to wait to get your first and then second dose.
All you need to do is enter your age, job and if you have a health condition.
It’s based on the Government’s priority list and the likely rate of vaccination.
The tool assumes that one million people will be vaccinated in a week, which would take just over two years to vaccinate everyone.
Adjusting this to two million per week would mean everyone is innoculated in a year.
But at the current pace – around 490,000 per week – it will take more than four years to vaccinate everyone, the calculator predicts.
Omni also predicts 70 per cent of people accept their jab offer, based on flu vaccine uptake, but in reality this could be lower.
Under the current pace:
- A healthy 25-year-old is behind between 26,045,733 and 36,557,921 people in the queue, and won’t receive their first dose until between January 2022 and June 2022.
- A 40-year-old with an underling health condition is behind between 10,301,693 and 16,987,753 people in the queue, and won’t receive their first dose until between June 2021 and September 2021.
- A 70-year-old is behind between 4,025,353 and 7,922,473 people in the queue, and won’t receive the jab until between March 2021 and May 2021.
With a vaccination rate of one million people per week:
- A healthy 25-year-old would receive their first dose between July 2021 and September 2021, and be fully vaccinated by August 2021.
- A 40-year-old with an underling health condition would receive their first dose between March 2021 and May 2021, and be fully vaccinated by August 2021.
- A 70-year-old would receive their first dose between February 2021 and March 2021, and be fully vaccinated by August 2021.
With a vaccination rate of two million people per week:
- A healthy 25-year-old would receive their first dose between April 2021 and May 2021, and be fully vaccinated by August 2021.
- A 40-year-old with an underling health condition would receive their first dose between February 2021 and March 2021,a nd be fully vaccinated by March 2021.
- A 70-year-old would receive their first dose between January 2021 and February 2021, and be fully vaccinated by May 2021.
The calculator is only a model to give a broad idea of how long you may need to wait for your jab.
But the creators say they believe it is realistic that one million people will be vaccinated per week in the next year.
The Government have explained everyone must wait until they are contacted by the NHS, offering them an appointment.
A SLOW START
Vaccines are the only way to put an end to crippling lockdowns, and so the faster they can be given, the quicker lives can return to normal.
The new coronavirus variant, which can spread faster and is fuelling record high coronavirus cases over the UK, is adding pressure onto the race to doll out vaccine doses.
Officials say the NHS is capable of the huge programme, but relies on sufficient supplies coming through to keep up pace.
Thousands of Sun readers have already stepped forward to join our Jabs Army.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine will accelerate over the coming weeks as more supplies become available.
Mr Hancock told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on January 12 that health services were “on track” to deliver it to 14 million by mid-February.
“The rate-limiting step on the rollout is the supply of the vaccine itself. We are now managing to get that supply more than we have done before and it will increase over the next few weeks,” he said.
“We have the capacity to get that vaccine out. The challenge is that we need to get the vaccine in.
“What I know is that the supply will increase over the next few weeks and that means the very rapid rate that we are going at at the moment will continue to accelerate over the next couple of weeks.”
