Covid cases in UK could rise again despite vaccine progress

Dr Catherine Smallwood, a senior emergency officer at WHO Europe, also said confidence in vaccines may have dipped after changes to the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab rollout, with under-30s to be offered alternative options amid concerns over rare blood clots.

/  Dr Catherine Smallwood

But Smallwood cautioned that the UK “still has potential to develop its own sort of renewed resurgence of cases without any involvement from the rest of Europe”. She said the tough measures that have been in place for nearly two months were “what’s keeping the cases down at the moment – it’s not the vaccination”.

“The population groups that are really driving transmission are still in the majority sense the ones that have not yet been vaccinated as a whole,” Smallwood said. “Transmission can still happen in the UK without any washing up on the shores of the European outbreak.”

Ministers have been giving reassurances over the safety of the vaccine after Wednesday’s decision by a UK advisory body to recommend that an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine should be offered to under-30s.

She reiterated that WHO advice remained that “we urge everyone who can be to be vaccinated, including with the AstraZeneca vaccine”.

Downing Street and the Department of Health said they were confident that the change of strategy on the AstraZeneca rollout in the UK and in several countries across Europe would not overly dent public confidence in the programme, and said there were no plans for a publicity campaign on vaccine take-up.