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At the start of 2021, the UK coronavirus vaccine rollout was one of the fastest in the world.

While the European Union launched legal action over supply shortfalls and several member states battled widespread vaccine hesitancy, by 20 March, Britain was handing out more than 800,000 doses a day.

But now it has fallen to 13th in the rankings of percentage of population vaccinated, with just 63.8% double jabbed.

And EU countries such as Malta, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and Belgium have now overtaken, as their rollouts gain momentum and the UK loses pace.

Here Sky News looks at why the UK COVID vaccine rollout appears to have slowed down.

Children not included in UK count so far

The government’s chief medical officers only agreed to start offering the vaccine to all 12 to 15-year-olds on 13 September.

This means that until that rollout begins, a significant part of the population will not appear in vaccination statistics, putting the UK behind other countries who have been immunising schoolchildren such as Portugal and Ireland.

Dr Al Edwards, of the University of Reading’s school of pharmacy, described the concept of the UK’s rollout being ‘behind’ as “artificial”.

“In the UK we started vaccinating the really vulnerable groups first and that has had a really significant effect,” he told Sky News.

“The benefit of vaccination is different for different age groups,” he said.

“So any country that can vaccinate their most vulnerable 30% will have huge benefits because that will help prevent serious disease and death.

“When you get to between 30 and 60% those benefits become marginal.

“And then when you get to around 80%, you are really just arguing about the benefits, because they have significantly diminished.”

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Professor Andrew Preston, of the University of Bath’s department of biology and biochemistry, added that avoiding lockdowns and being able to live with the virus matters more than the numbers.

“The end game of the vaccine programme was never to vaccinate 100% of the population, it was to overcome the pandemic”, he told Sky News.

“Vaccinating children will boost the numbers, but it all depends on whether we can move back to a pre-COVID existence or not – whether that’s by vaccinating 20%, 40% or 60% of the population.

“We need to move away from just looking at the percentage vaccinated and instead at what we are actually achieving in terms of this moving towards being an endemic virus in future years.”

Tough restrictions on unvaccinated in Europe and elsewhere

Malta has vaccinated more of its population than any other country.

One of the reasons for this is its tough restrictions on those who are unvaccinated.

Since the beginning of July, people can only remove their face masks in public places if they’ve been double jabbed.

This can be proven by an official Maltese vaccine certificate or the EU ‘digital pass’.

Although France’s vaccine programme is still behind the UK’s, it has caught up significantly since the introduction of its ‘health pass’ in late July.

Its daily vaccination rate almost doubled in the weeks following, with nearly eight million getting their first dose in the first six weeks.

People now have to show a health pass to go to cafes, bars, restaurants, museums and other indoor spaces.

Similar digital passes have been introduced across Europe and beyond and have helped boost vaccination rates.

In the UK however, the government has rejected the idea of vaccine passports apart from in nightclubs and says it will only bring them in more widely if hospitalisations rise this winter.

“Other countries seem quite happy to use a more authoritarian system without batting an eyelid,” Professor Preston said.

“Italy, for example, have their green pass and it seems to be working, but here we have a very vocal minority defending those civil liberties.”

UK vaccine messaging is ‘wearing off’

Vaccine uptake in the UK is still lowest in the under-30s.

Only 48.9% of 18 to 24-year-olds and 51.8% of 25 to 29-year-olds had received two doses in England by 12 September.

Although they were last to be offered a jab, the government promised to have invited everyone over 18 to get their first by mid-July and shortened the gap between first and second from 12 to eight weeks.

Professor Sharifah Sekalala, an expert in public policy and global health at the University of Warwick, says the overall vaccine rollout has suffered from a lack of engagement with young people.

“Because of the way we banded ages at the beginning, and we reopened before they were vaccinated, people of university age feel as though their vaccinations are not as important as others,” she told Sky News.

“There has been very little consultation with them. They don’t see their GPs as much as the rest of the population, so very little community work has been done and we need to do more to address that,” she said.

Professor Sekalala also claims public messaging on the vaccine has slowed down in general, particularly with regards to underprivileged groups.

“If we’re comparing ourselves to Europe, we have massive social inequalities already, so more community work on vaccines is required,” she said.

“But it’s wearing off – it was very strong in the beginning – but now some people just think it’s all done because we’re not talking about it anymore.”

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King Charles’s return to public outings marks significant moment, but uncertainty remains

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King Charles's return to public outings marks significant moment, but uncertainty remains

After a difficult few months we have a more positive picture from the Palace.

A personal moment of the King and Queen released with the news he can now return to public duties.

It’s the details he will be delighted to share.

Not only are his medics “encouraged” with his progress, and “positive” about his recovery, they’re also happy he can get back to work.

And for a man who is widely reported to be a workaholic, this will be wholly welcome.

This was not how he’d imagined the first year after his coronation.

Read more:
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King Charles III and Queen Camilla, taken by portrait photographer Millie Pilkington, in Buckingham Palace Gardens on April 10
Pic:  Millie Pilkington/Buckingham Palace/PA
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Pic: Millie Pilkington/Buckingham Palace/PA

He knows from his late mother’s mantra, a monarch has to be seen to be believed.

But his cancer diagnosis changed everything.

The royal year so meticulously mapped out was put on pause with unprecedented and huge uncertainty.

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Queen thanks young Kate well wishers

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The King’s constitutional work has continued, but the public outings were stopped.

His family has stepped up to support him, and protocols were in place should the need arise.

But it has been an incredibly challenging time for the House of Windsor.

News of the Princess of Wales’s cancer diagnosis a double blow for the family.

Handout photo provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales recording her message announcing that following her abdominal surgery in January "tests after the operation found cancer had been present." Issue date: Friday March 22, 2024.
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Kate, the Princess of Wales, is also undergoing treatment for cancer. Pic: Kensington Palace

There remains a lot of uncertainty; the King won’t return to full duties, and his engagements will be adapted to reduce the risk while he recovers. There’s also no confirmation yet about the big set piece events like Trooping the Colour or an overseas state visit.

But this is a significant moment. And the King’s return to public work will start with a personally poignant visit, as he and the Queen meet patients and staff at a cancer treatment centre.

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Deaths of Reading terror attack victims ‘probably avoidable’, inquest finds

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Deaths of Reading terror attack victims 'probably avoidable', inquest finds

The deaths of the Reading terror attack victims were “probably avoidable” and contributed to by the failings of multiple agencies, an inquest has found.

Friends James Furlong, 36, Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, and David Wails, 49, were stabbed to death by Khairi Saadallah, now 29, in Forbury Gardens on 20 June 2020.

Three other people were also injured before Saadallah, who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest), threw away the eight-inch knife and ran off, pursued by an off-duty police officer.

Saadallah was handed a whole-life sentence at the Old Bailey in January 2021 after pleading guilty to the three murders and three attempted murders.

Undated Thames Valley Police handout photo of Reading terror attacker Khairi Saadallah
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Khairi Saadallah. Pic: Thames Valley Police

Judge Coroner Sir Adrian Fulford today delivered his findings on the killings of history teacher Mr Furlong, pharmaceuticals manager Mr Ritchie-Bennett, and scientist Mr Wails.

Mr Fulford said the deaths “probably would have been avoidable” if the mental health service had given “greater priority to stabilising [Saadallah] and securing access to long-term psychological therapy”.

He added that if his “extremist risk had been better analysed”, Saadallah would probably then have been recalled to custody the day before the attacks, meaning they would never have happened.

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The coroner said the deaths of the three men were “contributed to by the failings of multiple agencies”.

Saadallah, who came to the country as a teenager from Libya, where he was trained to fight as a child soldier for a group now banned as a terrorist organisation in the UK, had a long history of offending and was released from prison on licence just 15 days before the attack.

Khairi Saadallah admits three murders and three attempted murders, but denies a terror motive
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Saadallah had a long history of offending. Pic: PA

The inquest heard six weeks of evidence looking at his management while he was in jail and on probation, his mental health and the assessment and response to his risk of terrorism.

The Old Bailey heard the Home Office dealt with Saadallah with “woeful inadequacy”, while he was referred to the government’s Prevent de-radicalisation programme four times.

MI5 “triaged” him on four separate occasions, once opening a “lead investigation”, but the security service said they found no evidence he planned to leave the country or commit an attack.

Saadallah had a string of previous convictions for offences including violence and possession of a knife, and spent repeated spells in jail between 2015 and 2020.

Prison intelligence reports showed a pattern of fighting, threats to staff, self-harming and suspected drug use, along with references to extremism.

A counsellor said she “harassed” mental health services to examine him in the year before the killings, while one probation officer broke down in court as she recalled unknowingly “managing an unconvicted murderer”.

The inquest also heard Thames Valley Police officers did not find a knife at Saadallah’s home during a “welfare check” the day before the attack after they were not told he was threatening to harm himself and others.

‘Catastrophically failed’

Mr Furlong’s father Gary said the victims’ families had listened with “shock and utter disappointment” to the evidence, which had led them to “fundamentally question” whether their faith in authorities to protect their loved ones was misplaced.

“Our boys did not stand a chance,” he said.

Dr Wails’s brother Andrew said UK state agencies had “catastrophically failed” in their duty to protect the public from Saadallah and that the attack “destroyed our lives”.

Calling Saadallah a “cowardly terrorist”, Andrew Wails said: “[He] had been a member of a proscribed terrorist group and murdered people, he confessed to throwing grenades at people in public places in Libya, yet he was let into the UK and allowed to remain here.”

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‘The state catastrophically failed in its duty’

Parallels to London Bridge stabbings

Nick Harborne, chief of Reading Refugee Support Group, also said the stabbings “could have been avoided” having warned various bodies about Saadallah months before the attack.

When the news of the stabbings broke, Mr Harborne “instantly knew it was Saadallah”.

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Reading attack ‘could have been avoided’

He said he had tried to communicate with Prevent, community mental health services, and the Probation Service, to notify them of Saadallah’s “potential for violence”.

Mr Harborne likened Saadallah’s trajectory to the terrorist Usman Khan who committed the 2019 London Bridge stabbings, and he referred to the attack in his communications with the various agencies.

“There is stuff we could all have done better… The tragedy didn’t have to happen,” he said.

Assistant Chief Constable Tim Metcalfe of Counter Terrorism Policing South said was “still work to do” to address the issues surrounding the case.

He added: “In this moment it is also important to reflect on the terrorist threat that we in UK policing and our partners face. It is significant and continually evolving.

“Many of the cases we are working on now involve people with complex mental health and social needs. We also are seeing more individuals with mixed or unclear ideology, who can be more difficult to assess and manage.”

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UK summons Russian ambassador as British man allegedly recruited as spy is charged over arson plot

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UK summons Russian ambassador as British man allegedly recruited as spy is charged over arson plot

The Foreign Office has summoned Russia’s ambassador to the UK after a British man was charged over an arson plot on London businesses linked to Ukraine.

The 20-year-old man is accused of masterminding alleged hostile state activity to benefit Moscow, in part by recruiting others for the arson attack last month.

“The UK remains deeply concerned by allegations of Russian orchestrated malign activity on UK soil,” a spokesperson for the ministry said on Friday.

“We call for an immediate cessation of this activity and we will continue to work with our allies to deter and defend against the full spectrum of threats that emanate from Russia.”

Dylan Earl is alleged to have engaged in conduct targeting the businesses in order to benefit the Russian state.

He has been charged under the National Security Act 2023 – the first case to involve alleged offences under the new spy laws.

Earl is accused of undertaking fraudulent activity, research and reconnaissance of targets, and attempting to recruit individuals to materially assist a foreign intelligence service carrying out UK-related activities, prosecutors say.

After news emerged of the charge, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin.

Earl is accused of organising and paying for an arson attack on two units on an industrial estate in Leyton, east London, on 20 March.

The blaze required 60 firefighters to bring it under control.

Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, writing on X on Friday, said he was “deeply concerned by allegations of British nationals carrying out criminal activity on UK soil to benefit the Russian state”.

He added: “We will use the full weight of the criminal justice system to hold anyone found guilty of crimes linked to foreign interference to account.”

Four others have also been charged in connection with the case, it can now be reported.

Reporting restrictions were lifted on Friday allowing all the defendants to be named, the CPS said in a statement.

Two other men – Paul English, 60, and Nii Mensah, 21 – have been charged with aggravated arson.

Jake Reeves, 22, has been charged with agreeing to accept a material benefit from a foreign intelligence service – as well as aggravated arson.

A fifth man – Dmitrijus Paulauska, 22 – has been charged with having information about terrorist acts.

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Earl appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London last Saturday – and English and Mensah on Monday. They were all remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on 10 May.

Reeves and Paulauska appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday – and their cases were adjourned to the same date.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism command, said: “While these are very serious allegations, I want to reassure the public that we do not believe there to be any wider threat to them in connection with this matter.” He added: “This investigation remains ongoing.”

Nick Price, head of the CPS’s special crime and counter-terrorism division, said: “Criminal proceedings against these defendants are active. No one should report, comment or share information online which could in any way prejudice their right to a fair trial.”

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