Britain’s chief scientific
adviser Patrick Vallance said on Tuesday that 60% of people being admitted to
hospital with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, correcting an earlier statement he
made on Monday. 

Earlier, at a news
conference, Vallance had said that 60% of people
being admitted to hospital with COVID-19 had already taken two doses of vaccine, reports
Reuters. This comment had sent the scientific community into a tizzy.

Speaking at the
Downing Street press conference, the chief scientific adviser said that it was ‘inevitable’
that the proportion of people being admitted to hospitals who have had both
doses of the vaccine will increase.

This, he said, was
because vaccines are not 100% effective. “They’re very very effective, but not
100%,” Vallance said.

“As a higher
proportion of the population is double vaccinated, it’s inevitable that those
10% of that very large number remain at risk and will therefore be amongst the
people who both catch the infection and end up in hospital,”

The chief
scientific adviser reiterated that the vaccine is less effective at stopping
people catching and spreading coronavirus than it is at preventing serious
illness.

“If everybody over
the age of 18 had taken up the vaccine then anybody who caught it would be
double-vaccinated,” Vallance said.

The news
conference was held in the backdrop of Britain lifting all pandemic curbs from Monday,
July 19.  

From midnight,
local time, nightclubs reopened and other indoor establishments were allowed to
operate at full capacity with no mandatory social distancing rules.
Additionally, masking and remote working rules were also scrapped.

However, the
British government has revealed that COVID vaccine certifications are likely to
be brought in for crowded, enclosed venues such as nightclubs.

Speaking to the
House of Commons on Monday, Nadhim Zahawi, said that proof of a negative
COVID-19 test would soon “no longer be sufficient” that a person was
COVID-safe.

Zahawi further
said that by the end of September everyone aged 18 and over will have the
chance to receive full vaccination and the additional two weeks for that
protection to take hold.