Britain On Fast-Track To Virus Recovery

Giant vaccine plant will supply entire country. New speeded up visa plan to boost the NHS. Boris hopes UK has 'some kind of normality' by July.

- David Maddox and David Williamson

A new vaccine centre is at the heart of Boris Johnson’s plans to fast-track Britain’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

The £93million facility will allow millions of vaccines to be rapidly produced and sent out to immunise the population.

The centre will be based in Oxfordshire, along with a £38million deployment facility.

The news has given renewed hope that work being carried out at Oxford University could produce a workable vaccine by the summer.

It comes as up to 20,000 people are being asked to take part in a new pin prick immunity test.

The research, led by UK Biobank and supported by the Department of Health and Social Care, will measure blood antibodies to help determine what proportion of the population has already had the infection, the duration of immunity after being infected, and why the virus affects people differently.

The announcements come after the Prime Minister briefed more than 100 Tory MPs in a video conference on Friday, saying that he hopes the country is back to “some kind of normality” by July.

A Downing Street source said that the PM made it clear “we will slam on the breaks if we have to and whack-a-mole the virus if it flares up”.

The revelations follow evidence in the latest official figures that show Britain is defeating the crisis.

According to yesterday’s Government report, just 20 per cent of NHS critical care beds now have coronavirus patients – down 24 per cent in the past week.

Another 468 deaths from the disease were reported, bringing the total to 34,466.