Targets will be met despite less supply of Covid-19 jabs, says Zahawi

BRITAIN is racing to find a balance between demand and supply for Covid-19 shots, but its vaccines minister is confident that targets will be met despite constraints.

The country's Covid-19 vaccine programme will receive a boost with Moderna jabs set to be rolled out in mid-April. Nadhim Zahawi said the UK will distribute 12 million of second doses in April.

"Supply is always challenging and supply is finite as you're seeing around the world. But I'm confident... that we'll meet our targets," Nadhim Zahawi told LBC radio on Tuesday (6).

When asked if deployment of Moderna vaccine on track to begin in mid-April, Zahawi said "very much so."

"It'll be in deployment around the third week of April," he told BBC TV, adding he was confident that the government would meet a target of offering all adults a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of July.

Zahawi also said that any Covid-19 certification Britain adopts cannot be discriminatory.

"There is not going to be a situation where a government is going to allow that to happen," Zahawi told the BBC television.

"Everyone can get a test. There is no discrimination. Not everyone can get a vaccine... which is why we've got to look at all the technologies to make sure they work together," he said.