HALF of Brits have now received a Covid vaccine in the historic fight against the virus.
More than 33.4MILLION Brits have had their life-saving jab in our vaccine rollout – which has allowed the country to ease lockdown restrictions.
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NHS England data up to April 23 shows that of the 38,189,536 total doses given in England so far, 28,102,852 were first doses – a rise of 107,656 on the previous day.
It means the UK first dose total is now 33,496,293 – with more recent figures still to be reported by Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The UK population is estimated to be 66,796,807, so the latest figures show that more than half the population have now had a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
The UK has outstripped all other EU countries in the vaccine race – while the bloc continued scaremongering over jab safety and dithering over administering the doses.
And relative to the size of our population, Britain only trails behind a handful of countries in the global vaccination blitz.
It was announced this week that Covid has dropped to the third biggest killer in England for the first time in six months – thanks to the rollout.
And thanks to our high number of vaccinations, Brits WILL be able to holiday in Spain, Portugal and Greece this summer, The Sun exclusively revealed.
VACCINE SUCCESS
The historic journey to inoculating Britain began on December 8, 2020, with British gran Margaret Keenan.
On V-Day, the 90-year-old became the first person in the world to get jabbed with the life-saving Pfizer vaccine at her local hospital in Coventry, West Mids.
And since Margaret's brave first move, over 33 MILLION Brits all across the country have taken up the call when it was their turn to get the vaccine.
Since December, our world-class vaccination programme has gone from strength to strength – with three safe and effective vaccines on offer in the UK.
Pfizer, Oxford Astra-Zeneca, and Moderna's life-saving jabs have armoured Brits in the fight against coronavirus – allowing us to restart life and ease lockdown.
As it stands, the country is on track to offer every adult a Covid vaccine by July – which will hopefully allow us to return to normal life as part of Boris Johnson's roadmap.
Currently, all adults in the UK aged over 50 have been offered the first dose of the Covid vaccine, the Government has announced last week.
PM Boris Johnson hailed another "hugely significant milestone" in the programme to protect the country against the killer bug.
And the Government successfully met its target of offering the jab to all of its top nine priority groups three days ahead of the target date of April 15.
HALFWAY THERE!
Mr Johnson said: "I want to thank everyone involved in the vaccine rollout which has already saved many thousands of lives.
"We will now move forward with completing essential second doses and making progress towards our target of offering all adults a vaccine by the end of July."
And while 50 per cent of the adult population have now had their first dose, one in five are fully vaccinated, according to data released this week.
More than two-and-a-half million second doses were delivered in the past seven days, latest figures show.
A total of 11.1 million people have now received both jabs – which is over 20 per cent of the adult population.
But even having one dose slashes hospitalisation risk in elderly Brits by as much as 98 per cent, real-world data suggests.
In a flurry of good news, analysis of NHS pandemic admissions shows vaccinations may be more effective at preventing serious illness than previously thought.
Public Health England last month revealed the risk of hospital admission dropped by at least 80 per cent for the over-80s, three weeks after their first shot.
But Government scientific adviser Professor Calum Semple said the real-world data shows vaccines are even better.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies member said the early findings were “very good news".
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