
As AstraZeneca became the latest drugmaker to release encouraging Covid-19 vaccine trial results on Monday, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that his government hopes to start vaccinating people in December, pending approval.
"Subject to that approval we hope to be able to start vaccinating next month. The bulk of the vaccine rollout programme will be in January, February, March, and we hope that sometime after Easter things will be able to start to get back to normal," Matt Hancock said on BBC Breakfast Monday.
Other countries are also hoping to start rolling out vaccinations next month.
Moncef Slaoui, the head of the US government's effort to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, said the first Americans to receive a vaccine -- if all things go according to plan -- could be as early as the second week of December.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last week that she expected a coronavirus vaccine to be approved in Europe in December or "very soon after the turn of the year."
The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, said on Friday that a “very substantial” part of the country’s population could be vaccinated in the first half of 2021. He said Spain would be the first European country, along with Germany, to have a vaccination plan.