V-DAY

Jabs drive set to meet major target ,PM hopes exit to start in a fortnight

- Nigel Nelson

Boris Johnson yesterday hailed a vaccines victory as the NHS looked set to meet its landmark target of 15million jabs target on Valentine’s Day – 24 hours early.

The PM spread the love by saying he was “optimistic” the nation will begin to come out of lockdown in a fortnight.

Of the vaccine effort, he said: “We have made huge progress and that’s great.”

But Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said success was down to the tireless work of doctors, nurses, GPs, pharmacists, soldiers and volunteers who made the remarkable rollout possible.

He added: “Going so quickly from labs to jabs is tribute to medical scientists and all the fantastic NHS staff. Each and every one is a hero we can all be proud of.”

The beginning of the end of lockdown will mean a phased return of schools on March 8 and scrapping the ban on meeting friends and loved ones outdoors.

But the PM warned restrictions would be lifted slowly to avoid what he called “the reverse ferret” of a new lockdown.

From tomorrow, the next three million people on the vaccine priority list aged 65 to 69 can begin having jabs. Another 1.8m aged 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions will also be protected.

Exciting

One million in phase two have already been offered booking slots and 2.4m reminder letters are in the post.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the vaccination programme was “continuing at an unprecedented speed” and NHS boss Sir Simon Stevens called the widening of the rollout “an exciting moment”.