Advertisement

When you can expect to get a coronavirus vaccine

This calculator can show you where you are in the vaccine queue if two millions jabs a week are delivered. (PA/Omni Calculator)
This calculator can show you where you are in the vaccine queue if 2 million jabs a week are delivered. (PA/Omni Calculator)

With the “game changer” Oxford vaccine’s approval leading to hopes of 2 million coronavirus vaccinations a week, it’s possible to calculate when you might get a jab.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has said the NHS could “absolutely” deliver 2 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine a week.

The UK has ordered 100 million doses of it, enough for 50 million people, and 30 million of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, enough for 15 million people.

The Vaccine Queue Calculator allows users to figure out when they could be called in to receive a dose.

The tool allows people to adjust how many get a vaccine per week, which can be changed to two million – up from the current reported rate of about 200,000.

The calculator uses the government’s list of priority groups for vaccinations.

By default, it assumes a million doses a week, but AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot said 2 million doses can be produced every seven days – which can be reflected by using the calculator’s advanced settings.

Hancock has told Radio 4: “That’s absolutely deliverable by the NHS.

Care home worker Pillay Jagambrun, 61, receives the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in The Vaccination Hub at Croydon University Hospital, south London, on the first day of the largest immunisation programme in the UK's history. Care home workers, NHS staff and people aged 80 and over began receiving the jab this morning.
A calculator shows how close you could be to receiving a COVID vaccine dose. (PA)

“The question is how fast the vaccine can be manufactured and the NHS stands ready across the whole UK to deliver this vaccine, along with the existing Pfizer vaccine, at the speed at which it can be manufactured.”

The recommended priority order for people to get vaccines starts with older care home residents and their carers, followed by people aged over 80 and frontline health and social care workers.

Over 75s, over 70s and the “clinically extremely vulnerable” are next, then over 65s.

Read more

The Tier 4 COVID lockdown rules explained
The Tier 3 COVID lockdown rules explained
The Tier 2 COVID lockdown rules explained

After that, anyone aged 16-64 with an underlying health condition that puts them at more risk from COVID-19 should be given jabs, followed by over 60s, then over 55s and over 50s, the final priority group.

The government has stated that the above groups represent 99% of preventable coronavirus deaths.

Described by respiratory disease expert Professor Calum Semple as a “game changer”, the Oxford vaccine has heavily bolstered the amount of doses available to the government.

Hancock told Sky News: “I am now, with this approval this morning, highly confident that we can get enough vulnerable people vaccinated by the spring that we can now see the route out of this pandemic.”

He could not put a date on when all people will be vaccinated, being unsure when people aged below 50 who don’t have existing conditions will be given their doses.

Watch: What is long COVID?