Katie Price 'shares her RELIEF after son Harvey, 18, receives Covid vaccine'

Katie Price expressed relief and joy on Saturday after her son, Harvey, reportedly received an early Covid-19 vaccine because he is ‘extremely vulnerable’ to the virus.

The 18-year-old, who is on the autism spectrum and was born with disabilities including partial blindness, ADHD and Prader-Willi syndrome, had the Oxford AstraZeneca injection, according to The Sun.

The TV star, 42, said to the publication: ‘Harvey was the youngest we saw there it was all smoothly calmly and professionally done. Harvey was so brave and it was over so quick everybody so helpful.

Staying safe: Katie Price expressed relief and joy on Saturday after her son, Harvey, reportedly received an early Covid-19 vaccine because he is ‘extremely vulnerable’ to the virus

‘It just felt like being in a film and made you realise more how serious this is.’

According to Katie, he received the vaccine in a school hall with everybody sat on seats in rows at a metres distance apart.

Due to his health conditions, Harvey is considered a vulnerable citizen, and he is now immunised in the fourth stage of the vaccine roll-out, orchestrated by the government.

Britain is on course to vaccinate all over-50s against Covid-19 by April 7 at the current rate of immunisation, MailOnline estimates reveal as debate rages through Government about when lockdown can be lifted.

Protected: The 18-year-old, who is on the autism spectrum and was born with disabilities including partial blindness, ADHD and Prader-Willi syndrome, had the Oxford AstraZeneca injection, according to The Sun

It comes after vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi, Chris Whitty and SAGE scientists have signaled that they want all over-50s to be offered an injection to keep hospitalisations low before society reopens.

The protection offered by one dose of coronavirus vaccine takes two to three weeks to kick in, the latest evidence suggests, meaning the UK would be on track for measures to be lifted at the end of April at the current rate.

If the UK vaccine drive accelerates from last week’s daily average of 345,000 people per day and is able to sustain its maximum rate of 600,000 doses a day, then the over-50s target could be hit by mid-March.

Department of Health sources were keen to downplay hopes, however, and said that giving out second doses could significantly slow down the rollout from March, while Mr Zahawi said the country could not be 100 per cent confident of vaccine supply.

Health: The TV star, 42, said to the publication: ‘Harvey was the youngest we saw there it was all smoothly calmly and professionally done. Harvey was so brave and it was over so quick everybody so helpful’

But anti-lockdown Tory MPs are pushing for measures including school reopening to be eased sooner when the 15million most vulnerable people are vaccinated by mid-February – but Boris Johnson has ruled out any lockdown relaxation before March 8.

Sceptics claim the ‘goalposts are being shifted’ and the focus is moving away from controlling deaths and hospitalisations with dire warnings about the threat of mutant coronavirus and continued strain on the NHS.

Mark Harper, chair of the lockdown-sceptic CRG block, said once the top nine groups are vaccinated, which he believes is likely to be by the end of May, restrictions should be lifted altogether.

Making progress: Last week the NHS vaccinated 345,000 people per day, on average – a rate of 2.4million people per week

And former Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith told MailOnline: ‘The trouble is they are now being beaten up by the scientists. The scientists are giving them all sorts of new reasons why you can’t unlock.

‘Of course for the scientists it doesn’t make any difference really because they get paid anyway.’

Experts estimate that the effects of mass vaccination could start to show through in falling numbers of people being admitted to hospital in mid-February, and then significantly fewer people dying from March.

They said there would also be an impact on infections, perhaps sooner, but this would be less noticeable.

Change: Analysis shared on Twitter by Professor Daniel Howdon, a health economist at the University of Leeds, suggested there appears to already have been approximately 25 per cent decline in death rates among over-80s

The UK today announced a further 20,634 coronavirus cases and 915 deaths – both down a quarter on last week.

Another 469,016 people got their first vaccine dose yesterday, taking this week’s total to 1.19million in just three days. Mr Zahawi said one in five adults have received a first jab already, with nine in 10 over-75s reached.

One researcher, Leeds University’s Professor Daniel Howdon, said there appears to already have been approximately 25 per cent declines in death rates among over-80s since December, although it is not yet clear whether this is a result of vaccination.

And Professor Karl Friston, a neuroscientist and disease modeller at University College London, today claimed Britain ‘might attain herd immunity by as early as July’, although he admitted to being ‘optimistic’ and said the true success of the vaccination programme will depend on how well the jabs prevent the virus from spreading.

WHY CAN’T WE VACCINATE PEOPLE FASTER?

The UK’s vaccination programme, while rocketing ahead at a rate of around 400,000 people per day this week, is being held back from going faster by limits in supply, Government ministers say, and there may also be bottlenecks in delivery at the weekends, with some GP surgeries not offering jabs on Sundays.

SUPPLY

Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, was pressed today on how long it would take to complete vaccination of the 31million people in the nine priority groups.

He said: ‘I don’t want to commit to a date without going through it with a very fine toothcomb with the whole team, because our limiting factor is the supply of vaccines ultimately.

‘With any manufacturing process, especially one that is new, there are challenges around that, as we’ve seen in Europe and as we saw in the early days in the UK as well.’

Pfizer and AstraZeneca, the manufacturers of the jabs being used in Britain, have both faced manufacturing problems in recent weeks.

Pfizer had to scale back its deliveries in January while it upgraded its factory in Belgium, and AstraZeneca took longer than expected to reach its 2million doses per week target for the UK because early batches were less fruitful than expected.

AstraZeneca, which manufactures in the UK, has also been embroiled in a bitter row with the EU over cutting back the continent’s supplies – although both the company and the UK Government have insisted this hasn’t hit British stockpiles.

Matt Hancock yesterday described the UK’s ‘lumpy supply’ when asked about a dip in vaccination numbers on Sundays.

DELIVERY

Lower jab numbers on Sundays has emerged as a trend in recent weeks and doctors have admitted not all GP surgeries offering vaccines are open on a Sunday.

Several GPs, who asked not to be named, told MailOnline that a large number of practices shut on Sundays and do not offer appointments – despite No10 insisting the immunisation drive is 24/7 operation. It echoed claims made by Scotland’s national clinical director yesterday who said the closure of surgeries on Sundays was hampering the vaccine rollout north of the border.

The Royal College of GPs said said family doctors were ‘doing everything they can’ to get the vaccine to those who need it most, with ‘some’ but not all practices providing services seven days a week.

Economists from the Institute for Economic Affairs told MailOnline that there is ‘no incentive’ for family doctors, who’ve been juggling the vaccine rollout and battling Covid on the frontlines of the second wave, to work seven days a week. It suggested GPs be offered commission on every jab done on a weekend.