England during the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic was first confirmed to have spread to England with two cases among Chinese nationals staying in a hotel in York on 31 January 2020. The two main public bodies responsible for health in England are NHS England and Public Health England. NHS England oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the NHS in England while PHE's mission is "to protect and improve the nation’s health and to address inequalities". As of 7 April 2021, there have been 3,834,283 total cases and 111,955 deaths in England. In January 2021 it was estimated around 22% of people in England have had coronavirus.

More than 33 million people in the UK have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. In a race against a faster-spreading variant of the virus, ministers have pinned their hopes for further easing of a third national lockdown on vaccinating as many adults as possible by summer.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today approved two versions of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, giving green light for these vaccines to be implemented globally through the COVAX mechanism.

Vaccines are produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio in South Korea and the Serum Institute of India.

Results from four clinical trials showed that this vaccine has an adequate safety and eficinity profile (63.09%) after the second dose to prevent COVID-19 disease, in people 18 years of age and more.