Zahawi reveals three vaccine doses saved his life

UK education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has said that vaccines prevented him from potentially dying after a bad case of Covid left him struggling to breathe last week, according to a report. 

Zahawi told Sky News that doctors had told him he could have ended up in hospital on a ventilator if he had not had three vaccines.

"I think, without the vaccine and the booster, I'd have had it even worse, my doctor said, because it's your physiology. Certainly I would have been in big trouble, according to my doctor," the minister said.

"It's your body's reaction to Covid that will determine how severe or asymptomatic you might be. By day four or five it got into my chest and started really affecting my breathing."

He urged people to get their vaccines and boosters. Zahawi said the government will be led by the data when it comes to ending the need to self-isolate.

He said prime minister Boris Johnson will set out plans for 'living with Covid' on February 21, and if the data continues in 'the direction it's moving in at the moment' restrictions could be lifted on February 24.

Johnson already declared the final domestic restrictions – including compulsory self-isolation for the infected – will be axed before the end of February, provided the 'encouraging' trends in the data continue.

Ministers have repeatedly spoken of their plans to live with Covid like flu, paving the way for England to lead the rest of the world out of the pandemic phase.

According to reports, the current self-isolation rules in England expire on March 24, but the Tory leader told MPs at prime minister's questions that 'provided the current encouraging trends in the data continue, it is my expectation that we will be able to end the last domestic restrictions a full month early'.

The estimated range of England's Covid-19 reproduction "R" number is between 0.8 and 1.0, similar to its range the previous week, the UK health security agency said on Friday (11), with the daily reduction in cases also around the same level.

An R number between 0.8 and 1.0 means that for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between 8 and 10 other people. Last week the range was 0.8 to 1.1.

The daily growth of infections was estimated at between -3 per cent to 0 per cent, compared to -3 per cent to +1 per cent the previous week