Every UK adult to get first dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sept: senior official

LONDON -- The British government plans to offer a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine to every adult in Britain by September 2021, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Sunday.

Raab, in an interview on Sky News, said that it would be "great" if the vaccine rollout could be faster but that the government was working to the early autumn target.

"Our target is by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose," he said. "If we can do it faster than that, great, but that's the roadmap."

He said that he hopes by the "early spring" some restrictions can be lifted "gradually" so the country can "get back to normal".

However, Raab warned that it could be put "at risk" by the new variants and pressure on the National Health Service (NHS) as he urged people to follow the restriction rules.

More than 3.5 million people in Britain have so far received their first dose of a vaccine and some 324,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines were administered in the space of 24 hours, British media reported.

Raab's comments came as another 1,295 deaths in Britain were reported on Saturday, the third highest daily total since the pandemic began in the country, but at the same time, the country recorded the lowest number of lab-confirmed cases this year with 41,346 new cases.

England is currently under the third national lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines.