London:

All adults in Britain will be offered a first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of July, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday ahead of a planned announcement on the cautious reopening of the economy from lockdown.

PM Johnson will set out a roadmap to ease England’s third national lockdown on Monday, having met a target to vaccinate 15 million Britons from higher-risk categories by mid-February.

Britain now aims to give a first dose to all over-50s by April 15, the government said, having previously indicated it wished them to receive the shot by May.

If all adults receive a dose by the end of July, it will be well ahead of a previous target that they would receive a vaccine by autumn.

After suffering the world’s fifth-worst official COVID-19 deaths and a series of mishaps in its pandemic response, Johnson’s government moved faster than much of the West to secure vaccine supplies, giving it a head start.

PM Johnson cautioned that there was a need to avoid complacency, adding that lockdown would only be lifted slowly.

“We will now aim to offer a jab to every adult by the end of July, helping us the most vulnerable sooner, and take further steps to ease some of the restrictions in place,” PM Johnson said in a statement.

“But there should be no doubt – the route out of lockdown will be cautious and phased, as we all continue to protect ourselves and those around us.”

So far, the United Kingdom has given a first dose of vaccine to 17.2 million people, over a quarter of its 67 million population and behind only Israel and the United Arab Emirates in vaccines per head of population.

Two vaccines – one made by Pfizer and BioNTech, and another developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca – are being rolled out, and UK officials have advised that there can be a 12 week gap between doses.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)