Matt Hancock was forced to begrudgingly admit that a vaccine shortage will delay Britain’s vaccine drive today after an evasive press conference last night in which he made no mention of the shortfalls until challenged by journalists.
The Health Secretary’s attempt to present the delay as a ‘pause’ in vaccinations for under-50s was only exposed by the release just minutes before he took the podium of an NHS letter revealing the supply problems.
Last night, he tried to blame the delay on a ‘lumpy’ supply chain before finally appearing in the Commons today to announce that India’s decision to block a shipment of around 4million doses was behind the problem.
Mr Hancock was forced to admit the scale of the problem after details were leaked by senior Government sources last night.
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth accused Mr Hancock of attempting to ‘downplay legitimate concerns’ about the possible rationing of first doses last night.
Commenting shortly after the press conference, the shadow health secretary said: ‘People across the country will be anxious and worried that the booking of new first dose vaccination appointments will be paused form the end of March.
‘Matt Hancock needed to explain exactly what these supply issues are and what he is doing to resolve them. Trying to dismiss or downplay the legitimate concerns of anxious people waiting for a vaccine is simply not good enough.’
Deputy leader of the Labour party Angela Rayner accused Mr Hancock of ducking legitimate questions about supplies, tweeting last night: ‘I fail to see the point of a press conference that fails to answer those basic questions when people will be legitimately very worried tonight.’
It follows weeks of increasingly optimistic briefings and promises by vaccines minister Nadim Zahawi of a surge in the number of vaccines to be delivered in March.
That surge will now not happen and a briefing last week that claimed over-40s will be offered jabs in March appears to have also been proven incorrect
One former minister told MailOnline today the Government’s ‘over-hyping’ of the rollout had ‘opened it up to avoidable criticism’.
‘We should always underpromise in the anticipation of ‘events, events”,’ the MP said.
‘The early success has unfortunately made people get carried away. Had they not overpromised there would not be an issue because the public would have been delighted with what has been achieved.
‘The over-hyping opens up the government to criticism which it could have avoided.’
Senior government sources told The Telegraph last week that over-40s group would be offered a vaccine by April 4 — more than a week before all over-50s should have been offered their first dose.
But the Department of Health and Social Care dismissed the claim at the time. — despite hopes of a bumper supply that saw NHS bosses tell vaccination clinics to prepare for twice as many doses from this week.
A spokesperson added: ‘We have set out our timelines for the vaccination programme and there is no change to this.
‘We intend to offer a first dose to all over-50s by mid-April and all adults by the end of July.’
Matt Hancock last night played down vaccine delays which could see Britons under 50 waiting an extra month for the lifesaving jab, muddling the rollout’s timeline
Supply figures for the vaccines were always expected to dip in April and May, according to projections published by the Scottish Government in January — before the UK had struck a deal for 10million doses from India. Therefore, the India delivery delay is believed to be separate from these figures
Although the Serum Institute agreed to supply 10million doses of vaccine to the UK, Britain gets most of its AstraZeneca supplies from factories within the country. Most manufacturing is done in Keele and Oxford, with the finishing process completed in Wrexham in North Wales
Confusion about the UK’s vaccine timeline began in January, when AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot predicted the UK would have vaccinated all over-50s by the end of this month.
He told Italian newspaper La Repubblica: ‘By March, the UK will have vaccinated maybe 28 or 30million people.
‘The Prime Minister has a goal to vaccinate 15million people by mid-February, and they’re already at 6.5million. So they will get there.’
That goalpost was shifted back to early May by Health Secretary Matt Hancock at the start of February, stressing the date was dependent on supply.
Speaking at the time, he told The Telegraph: ‘My plan is that we should be able to offer a vaccine to everybody in categories one to nine — that’s all the over-50s — by May.
‘Lots of things have got to go right to hit that goal, especially supply, which is the rate-limiting factor.
‘But I’m sure, working with the NHS and everybody else who is making this happen, that if we keep going at the pace we can, then we can make sure all the over-50s get the offer of a vaccine by May.’
Just over two weeks later, the date was moved forward again, with the Government announcing a target of April 15 to have all the priority group vaccinated.
The Serum Institute of India’s CEO, Adar Poonawalla, is pictured with No10’s International Trade Secretary Liz Truss in February, before news emerged of the deal that it would supply the UK with 10million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine
But No10’s vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said ‘bumper weeks’ of supply would accelerate the rollout this month.
He said: ‘We are working towards accelerating the pace of rollout with some bumper weeks ahead from the middle of this month allowing us to ramp up the vaccination.’
It came just over a week after the UK agreed a deal with the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer, to receive 10million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Previously all 100million doses of the vaccine ordered by the UK were expected to be made between British factories. The UK did receive an unknown amount of AZ’s jab from the Netherlands at the start of January.
NHS bosses last night warned of a vaccine shortage in April, effectively cancelling new first dose appointments until May because of a lack of supplies.
Government sources immediately claimed the UK’s dilemma was down to a delayed shipment of 5million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine being manufactured on India.
AstraZeneca and Pfizer — the manufacturers of the two jabs being used in Britain — were both quick to dismiss shortage fears.
AstraZeneca also insisted there were no hiccups with its domestic supply. Its comment implied the problem was coming from abroad, backing up claims from Whitehall insiders that the delayed shipment from the Serum Institute of India was to blame.
Mr Hancock today finally confirmed a delayed shipment from India was behind the vaccine shortage due to hit the UK next month.
This was after he chose to gloss over the actual cause of the shortage in last night’s press conference, instead resorting to his usual jibe of ‘lumpy supplies’.
The UK was expecting another 5million doses of the Oxford-made vaccine from the Serum Institute to complete its order for 10m but a ‘scheduled’ delivery was pushed back, Mr Hancock told MPs today.
But pouring more confusion on the topic, the SII’s boss insisted it was never under a certain time frame to deliver on all 10million doses it had promised to Britain.
Narendra Modi’s government in New Delhi is in control of exports and blocked the shipment, the Serum Institute’s CEO Adar Poonawalla said, to keep them for their own citizens with the country facing the prospect of a second wave.
Mr Poonawalla said the company has committed only to helping the UK ‘as and when it can’.
Last month Mr Poonawalla asked other countries to ‘be patient’ and said it had been asked to ‘prioritise the huge needs of India’ and poorer nations.
Coronavirus cases in India are currently at about a third of their peak 2020 levels and the foreign minister said in parliament this week that ‘adequate availability at home’ was top of its priority list, the Financial Times reported.
Mr Hancock told the House of Commons today: ‘We have a delay in the scheduled arrival from the Serum Institute of India.’
And he said a further 1.7million doses of vaccines had been held up because experts had to ‘re-test its stability’, although he did not say which vaccines this affected, nor when the delay happened or how long it was.
Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick said the Government had learned of vaccine supply issues ‘in the last few days’, and suggested the problem is not due to reductions from a single nation.
The Housing Secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We have learned from some of our manufacturers that there are going to be some supply issues in the last few days.
‘A number of global manufacturers are experiencing issues.’
Pressed if the issue was vaccine coming from India, he said: ‘It’s not that there’s any one factory responsible for this or any one country.’